End Game
by ButterflyGirl89
Summary: The team all have to work together to find Jo when she is abducted. Her abducter is happy to put them through hell and all their lives at risk, especially Mac's. With bodies mounting up the team have to work fast before Jo becomes the next body they find.
1. Chapter 1

**So this is my new CSI: NY story. Hope you like it. Thanks for giving it a go.**

**Summary: The team all receive the same message from Mac. It's an address to a crime scene. They show up, ready for work, little do they know that this is just the start of a deadly game where all their lives are in danger. After an explosion one of the team is missing. In order to get them back they have to clear the name of an accused criminal who is desperate not to go back to prison. However, they then push the finish line further away and the team is forced to continue to play their game. Can the team do their job in time to save one of their own, or will they have to find a way to cheat the man who calls himself the Gamekeeper. **

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

**Chapter 1**

"_The case of five missing school girls was last night solved when DNA evidence linked known serial rapist and killer Gerard Cullen. Police are now desperately trying to find him. The public have been asked to ring the police hotline if they see him but not to approach him as he is classed as likely armed and highly dangerous."_

Jo grabbed the remote and flicked off the TV. She didn't have to hear what the News reporter had to say. She was sick of hearing about the case, and in particular about Ged Cullen, she was part of the team who was working it. It was getting late and it was her first early night home in weeks. She was just considering going to bed when her phone began buzzing.

She sighed and picked it up. It was a message from Mac, forwarded to the whole team. She read it and made a mental note of the address he had sent over. At the end of the message said: _Crime scene. Ged's struck again, Mac._

Quickly realising she wasn't getting an early night she pushed herself up off her couch.

~0~0~0~0~

_**40 minutes later.**_

Jo pulled up at the crime scene at the same time as Danny and Lindsay and Adam, who climbed out of his car still looking half asleep.

"Is anyone else fed up of this case." he said to no one in particular.

"Very!" Lindsay said, not even trying to hide the fact that she was cranky from lack of sleep.

"Where's Mac?" Flack asked from where he stood near Hawkes.

"I presume inside." Jo said.

As if on cue their phones all beeped again. Another message from Mac, _"The scene is inside the warehouse."_ It stated.

"Let's go meet the boss." Jo said, thinking it must be one hell of a crime scene if the entire team was needed.

Jo, Hawkes, Adam, Flack, Danny and Lindsay all made their way into the ole warehouse. The place looked ready to fall apart so they all took careful steps.

Once inside they found themselves standing in a large room, the roof of which was half on the floor beneath them. As they looked up they could see the starry sky.

"I don't see Mac anywhere." Adam said.

"MAC!" Flack called out.

They were all as puzzled as each other when they got no reply.

"What's going on?" Lindsay asked.

The words had barely escaped her lips when an explosion rang out. It was so loud and so powerful they were all thrown in different directions across the room. The heat and roar of the flames grew around them as they all lay there.

~0~0~0~0~

It was a moment before they were able to push themselves up, all of them trying to search through the flames to find each other. Danny was right by Lindsay, as they had been stood by each other when the explosion had occurred. He helped her to her feet and held her up as they made their way out of the warehouse.

Adam helped Hawkes, who was lying nearest to him, to his feet and out of the door. Hawkes was limping badly, a shard of wood protruded from his lower leg.

Flack remained inside. He'd seen the others leave but had yet to see Jo. "Jo!" he called into the flames, trying not to breathe in any of the smoke. "Jo!" he called again before another smaller explosion almost knocked him off his feet again.

He searched again but he couldn't see her anywhere. He didn't want to leave the building without her but the flames where creeping nearer and nearer to the door. He wondered if maybe she had already gotten out and he just hadn't seen her. She had been last in so was stood nearest to the door when the first explosion had happened.

He ran over to the door, ignoring the burning pain in his shoulder. The cold air hit the back of his throat as he ran out of the building. Danny and Adam ran over to him and helped him stay on his feet as he choked on the smoke that had seeped into his lungs.

"Where's Jo." he asked between choking.

"She's not out here." Danny said.

"I have to go back in." Flack said, turning back to the building.

"No you don't. Stay here, we'll go!" Danny shouted.

He and Adam ran over to the door but before they could get to it another explosion had them flying backwards in the air before they landed on the hard floor.

~0~0~0~0~

Mac was lying on the couch with the TV was playing to itself in the background. He wasn't in a deep sleep but deep enough that his phone rang a few times before he finally heard it. He reached onto the coffee table and grabbed it. "Mac Taylor." he said.

"Mac, its Flack. Look, something's happened. I think we've been set up." Mac could hear the panic and pain in his voice.

He sat up on his couch, now suddenly full awake. He grabbed the remote control and turned the TV off. "Where are you? What's happened?" he asked a little confused.

"We're at the docks. There was an explosion." Flack told him.

Mac wasted no time in pulling his shoes on. He got up and walked over to where his jacket was hanging and asked, "Is anyone hurt?"

"Everyone's a little bit banged up…"

"I'll be there in 5 minutes." Mac said. He was about to hang up but as Flack began to speak again he continued to listen.

"Mac…" Flack began, "Jo's missing. I tried but, I couldn't find her in there."

Mac stood, frozen on the spot. Flack's next words were like a kick in the gut.

"Mac, I think she's gone…" Flack said as he looked into the roaring flames that stretched up into the black New York night sky.

**TBC **

**Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think. If anyone's interested I'll post more A.S.A.P.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to everyone who is giving this story a go. Thanks for the reviews so far, as well as the alerts and things.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

**Chapter 2**

Mac arrived at the scene to find it swarming with firemen who were trying desperately to put the fire out, but it seemed determined to keep burning.

Mac ran over to where two ambulances were parked side by side. Danny was sat on a stretcher inside one of them as a medic did his best to clean up the gash on his forehead. Lindsay, who was sat in the doorway of that ambulance, had a matching gash that had already been cleaned up and another medic was offering Flack some oxygen in the other ambulance.

He quickly checked over his team, and noticed Hawkes was missing. "Where's Hawkes?" he asked.

"He had to be taken into hospital. Some wood got lodged in his leg and he's going to need minor surgery to remove it." Danny said from inside the ambulance.

They all saw the look of concern on Mac's face. "He's gonna be fine." Lindsay told him.

Everyone seemed to go quite. Mac looked over his team again, hating to see them all with cuts, burns and scrapes, but at least they were alive. _He couldn't be more thankful for that._ He turned and looked over at the building that was finally beginning to give into the fireman's attempts to put out the angry flames. He closed his eyes and could see Jo's smiling face. He hated to think she was inside that building still, but he knew if she was then she was truly gone.

~0~0~0~0~

_**5 days later.**_

Mac and the team were stood under big black umbrellas in the miserable grave yard. Mac glanced up and saw Tyler who had one arm wrapped around Ellie who was stood with her back to the coffin. He could tell she was crying and was proud to see Tyler staying strong for her even though he knew he was feeling anything but. It was obvious how close Tyler had been to his mother and Mac felt so sorry that he had lost her; he knew how close a family they had been.

He looked down and watched as the expensive coffin was lowered into the wet cold ground. The raindrops that fell on it seemed to splash so loudly it echoed in his head, deafening him. They had not recovered Jo's body and so everyone had just placed something that reminded them of Jo in the coffin. That still didn't stop him from imagining Jo's body inside it, lying there, lifeless; her beautiful smiley brown eyes closed.

He closed his eyes and tried to will the image away but it only became clearer and this time it changed. Jo's eyes suddenly opened to look right at him and her lips moved as she begged "Please help me!"

He quickly opened his eyes. The coffin was still being lowered, but he could no longer stomach to watch it. He pushed away from the crowd and walked away from the service, not caring that everyone was watching him. The rain pelted down on him as he dodged between tombstones. It soaked him through to the bone yet he could barely feel how cold he was.

Jo's voice echoed in his head. _"Help me, help me…"_

~0~0~0~0~

Jo was lay on the mattress in the corner of the small concrete room she was in, her cell. She was glaring up at the plain ceiling. The room was made up of four solid cold concrete walls. It had no windows and the door was made of heavy metal. She had busted all her knuckles up hammering on it the first day she had found herself inside the room. _She had been begging and screaming for help but it had done no good._

She had worked out that the room was some sort of panic room. There was an intercom system in it, just by the door. Her captor used it to talk to her and she used it to ask for permission to go the toilet or for water and food, or to answer the few questions he asked her.

Using the bathroom was the only time she was let out of her concrete cell. When this happened she was led through what had the potential to be a beautiful home. It was huge and although she had only seen parts of it she guessed it was some sort of townhouse.

When she wasn't in the panic room she could hear the traffic outside but she could never see it. The blinds and curtains were always kept closed and she was marched to the bathroom so quick that she didn't have chance to try to peek through them. When she was in the bathroom he always allowed her ten minutes and she usually used them to drink from the tap because he never gave her enough water, only ever a small glass to keep her mouth from drying up.

She was looking around her cell, thinking about how much she hated it and knowing how being stuck in it was going to make her go crazy, soon. She had no idea how many days she'd been here because she had no way of keeping track of time. Her watch had been broken in the explosion and she had no other way to check or try to track the time.

She looked up when the light began to flicker above her, she knew it meant it had been flicked off, but dodgy connections meant it always flickered before it went black in the room. She also knew this only happened when her abductor was going to talk to her or when he was tormenting her which he seemed to get great pleasure from.

She sat up and dropped her head into her hands as she heard the click and buzz of the intercom, then all she heard was his breathing, filling the small dark room. She hated when he did this, it felt like he was in the room with her and it always made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

"How you feeling, Alabama?" he asked menacingly.

He had called her that since day one, _however many days ago that had been. _She pushed herself up and managed to feel her way around in the dark until she found the intercom. She pushed the button and said, "I need to use the bathroom?" It was a lie, but she felt like she was suffocating in this room and was desperate to get out of it.

"You only went an hour ago." he said.

"I feel sick." she told him.

There was a moment of silence before he said, "You're lying, Alabama!"

Jo sighed. She decided to just try the truth. "Please, I just want to be out of this room, just for a few minutes." she said.

Again silence was the only reply she got. Unable to take it any longer she slammed the palm of her hand against the door and jabbed the button with her finger, much harder than necessary, and said, "Please you son-of-a-bitch!" she knew it would make him less likely to let her out but she was angry and frustrated and in pain.

She had a nasty gash on the back of her head that she had sustained in the explosion, not to mention gashes to both her elbows and multiple burns of different degrees all over her body. She also had a deep laceration on her stomach from which she had pulled out a shard of metal. Her skin and scorched clothes were filthy, and dried blood seemed to be caked all over her despite her best efforts to clean it off over multiple trips to the bathroom.

She sighed and stepped back away from the door. She felt her way back over to the corner of the room and was about to sit down on the mattress when the light came on again. She turned to face the door and watched as it slid open with the same loud '_whooshing' _sound it always made_._

She watched her abductor, _her tormentor, _as he stood there, glaring at her. "Come here." he told her. His voice was as deep and as raspy as usual.

Obediently she took a step towards him. She was just a couple of steps away from him when she stopped. "Come here!" he told her more firmly.

Jo knew what she was about to do was stupid but she was desperate for freedom, so, stupid or not she was doing it. She lunged forward and to her delight her elbow connected hard with his face. She didn't even think about the pain it had caused her injured elbow as she ran through the room in which the panic room was.

She knew this room led out to a long corridor. Next to this room was the bathroom she had been allowed to use, but she was going for the stairs that she had noticed the first time she had been led to the bathroom.

She was halfway down them when she heard her abductor on his feet and chasing after her. Her side was causing her agony and was making running hard, but she kept moving. The next floor of the house was like a maze and she saw no more stairs but also no front door to run out of.

So she dove into a room and quickly slipped into another one unnoticed. She hid behind a large dresser in the otherwise empty room. She knew she needed either a better hiding place or a way out of the house. She peeked out from behind it and saw a window across the room from her. _Silently she crept over to it._

She felt gutted when she pushed the curtains open to see the window had metal bars on it on the outside. _She knew she wasn't getting through that one_. The nearby sound of footsteps quickly made her run back over to her pathetic hiding place behind the dresser.

"Alabama!" she heard her abductor call out.

She pressed herself tighter against the wall, wishing it would open up and swallow her, transport her somewhere safe, but that thought was foolish and clearly never going to happen.

She heard the footsteps move into the room where she was and she tried to hold her breath, she even placed her hand over her nose and mouth. She was scared that she would be heard breathing and would give away her hiding place, but suddenly making a sound didn't matter.

"You gonna come out from behind the dresser there on you own, Alabama? Or do I have to make you?" he said to her.

She didn't answer she just hid in the shadows praying he would think she wasn't there and would move on to another room and give her the chance to find a way out. She was in too much pain to try to run again. She could feel warm blood dribbling down her stomach, seeping into the already blood stained waistband of her jeans. _The laceration on her stomach was responsible._

"Have it your way." She heard him say.

For a second it was silent and she thought that maybe her prayers had been answered but then the dresser began to push against her, thanks to her captor. He was strong, much stronger than she was. Her attempts to push it back towards him were in vain. The dresser was so damn heavy too, solid English oak. _She didn't stand a chance. The prick was going to crush her behind it._

It was give in or be crushed. "Stop!" she screamed, but he didn't.

It was a struggle but she managed to squirm her way out from behind the dresser, the second she did a heavy fist connected hard with her cheek. "You try to run again and I will kill you." he told her.

Then, with one hand he grabbed a handful of her hair and with the other he grabbed her arm and twisted it painfully up her back. Keeping her like this he pushed her back up the stairs and back to the panic room. He pushed her in it and the door then slammed shut behind her.

It reopened a minute later. Jo flinched as a rolled up newspaper was thrown at her. "Look at the front page." her captor told her.

Reluctantly Jo did as he told her. The second she saw it a sob caught in her throat. It was an article on a fallen Detective's funeral…_her funeral._ It made her feel sick. Her friends, her children, her family all thought she was dead. She wanted to scream _'I'm not, I'm here. Please come find me!' _She scanned the paper and saw the date. Finally she knew how long she had been trapped here, knew how long her loved ones had thought her dead, and she understood why today was her funeral. She'd been gone 5 days and was presumed dead.

"Now, it's time to make a call." Her abductor said to her.

~0~0~0~0~

Mac was sat in his office, behind his desk, staring at his computer screen which had now gone blank from having not been used. It was silent in his office and as he glanced up at the rest of the lab that too seemed silent. However, it was better than being at home. That place was always silent and he hated it.

The silence was interrupted by the shrill ringing of his phone. He glanced at it as it spun around in a circle as it vibrated loudly. He picked it up and glanced at caller Id. When he saw who was ringing him he almost dropped it back down.

He calmed himself as best he could and with a shaky voice answered, "Jo?" he said.

"Mac Taylor?" a voice that wasn't Jo's asked.

"Who is this?"

"I asked you first. Is this Mac Taylor?"

"Yes! Now where did you get this phone?"

"From Jo."

"This is some sort of a sick joke, right?" he growled, angry that someone would play such a cruel trick on today of all days.

"I can assure you this is no joke, it's deadly serious. Jo is here with me."

"I don't believe you." Mac said.

"Check your emails."

Immediately Mac did, he saw the only new message he had and opened it and then opened the attached file and found he was staring at a picture of Jo. In her hands was a newspaper, the one with her picture and the article about her funeral. _It was today's paper._

"Where the hell is she?" he asked.

"She's here…"

"Please, tell me what you want in exchange for her safety?" he asked.

"That's easy. You and your team play along, you _all_ follow my rules; follow them _exactly_ how I tell you and you can have her back as soon as you're done."

"And what exactly do me and my team have to do?" Mac asked.

"Clear my name. I never killed those school girls they're saying I did. You and your team are going to prove it."

Mac suddenly knew just who he was talking to and as he thought about the things this man was capable of his fear for Jo only worsened. "Your DNA was found inside every one of them girls, left behind after you raped them." Mac reminded Gerard Cullen.

"I never said I didn't rape them, I said I didn't kill them."

"Then who did?" Mac asked.

"That's what you and your team have to find out. You have 48 hours. After that I kill Jo and start shipping her back to you in pieces, and not in that order."

"If you hurt her…!" Mac began to say but was cut off.

"You have 48 hours Detective Taylor, I suggest you don't waste time making stupid threats that you will never get the chance to carry out."

"How can I get in touch with you?" he asked.

"You can't. I'll keep in touch with you."

"Gerard…"

"Don't call me that!"

"Then what should I call you?"

"Call me the Gamekeeper, because you and your entire team are now playing my game." he replied before the line went dead.

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading. Please leave a review and let me know what you think.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

**Chapter 3**

"We now have 47 hours to revisit every one of the crimes scenes in the Gerard Cullen case and prove he didn't kill those girls."

"Mac, we went over every inch of those scenes. If we could have found evidence to say it wasn't Cullen then we would have done then. It was him, no doubt about it." Danny said.

"But why would he admit to raping them if he didn't kill them?" Adam asked.

"Because he knows we have him on the rapes, his DNA was inside every one of them girls." Mac said.

"Cullen _has_ killed before. His DNA links him to the deaths of three other women, all brutally raped and then murdered. So why not kill these girls? It doesn't make any sense." Lindsay said.

"The deaths of those women couldn't be pinned on him. We knew he raped them but they were all killed days after they were raped, and found days after they were killed." Mac said.

"So why not kill the girls? It just doesn't make sense to me." Lindsay said again.

"So he took Jo just to use her to make us reopen the case." Hawkes said.

"Jo is his bargaining tool. He knew we'd do anything he wants to get her back." Mac said.

"So _he_ set up the explosion. But I still don't get how he sent those messages from your phone Mac." Lindsay said.

"Actually I think I may have worked that one out." Adam said as he pulled out his iphone. "It's an app." he said as he showed them all.

"Clone phone?" Lindsay asked.

"You type in the number you want to send the message to and you type in the number that you want it to have come from and voilà." Adam said as he demonstrated it. Danny looked down as his phone suddenly beeped in his pocket. He took it out and saw that he had a message, sent from Mac who hadn't touched his phone. "See." Adam said. "If he has an iphone he probably has this app."

"We don't have time for playing with apps on phones." Mac said.

"No, but this app isn't free so if he has it he would have had to pay for it using a phone credit account he set up. If we can get the details from that then we might be able to pull an address. It's worth a shot, Mac." Adam said.

"Then get too it. The rest of you are with me. We're going back to the first scene." he told them, "We may have been given 48 hours but I want Jo back here safe before that."

~0~0~0~0~

_Jo felt terrible._ Her whole body was shivering from the pain she was in. She sat up as best she could and pulled her shirt up a little so she could look at the wound on her stomach. She had been using torn pieces of her bed-sheet to pack the wound, up until now it had stopped the bleeding some. She pulled the blood soaked rag from the wound, wincing in pain. She grabbed another rag from next to her mattress, _ones she had prepared earlier_, and carefully pressed it into the wound; whimpering in pain.

She flopped back down and thought about how bleak a situation she was in. However, the thought quickly brought tears to her eyes so she pushed it aside and sat up as much as she could again to check the wound.

She was a little worried to see the rag was already soaked with blood, blood that had nowhere to go but dribble down her flank. She grabbed another piece of rag and tried packing that into the wound but it did nothing but cause her to yelp in pain. She closed her eyes for only a few second but when she opened them she saw that rag was already soaked. _This was bad._

Somehow she managed to push herself onto her feet. It took some time but she did it. She wandered over to the intercom and pressed the button with a shaky and blood stained finger. She tried to speak but pain took her breath away and the sound of her gasping was all her captor heard.

She placed her hand over the wound and tried to press down, tried to slow the bleeding but she could feel her blood seeping through her fingers. She tried to breathe through the throbbing almost blinding pain.

"What?" she heard.

"I'm bleeding." she told him. "My stomach….I can't stop the blood anymore." she said, her voice dripping with pain. She could barely hold back her tears.

She got no reply and what seemed like hours passed where nothing happened. She was about to let her tears fall freely when the door slid open. She saw her captor standing there but he began to sway, or she did, _she wasn't sure_. She reached out and grabbed hold of the wall, unable to stand on her own.

She didn't know she had collapsed to the floor until she felt herself get scooped up off it. She was in no way able to do anything about it. She could feel herself slipping into blackness, into unconsciousness.

~0~0~0~0~

Mac and the team were at the first scene still. It was a deserted spot in central park. The recent rainy weather had completely destroyed the scene. They weren't finding anything else and he doubted they were going to.

"Mac, this scene is months old. The weathers washed everything away. We're not gonna find anything." Danny said, having walked over to Mac.

Mac nodded, he knew he was right and hoped they would have better look revisiting the second scene, that one was an alley down town. It too had been released by now and so he knew any evidence they found there could be contaminated, but he knew they had to try. "Come on, we're going to the Shelly Murrin's crime scene!" he yelled.

~0~0~0~0~

Jo had regained consciousness only to find herself lying on a bed. She had some sort of gag in her mouth that left a disgusting taste in her mouth that made her want to throw up. She knew from the stiff pain in her shoulders that her arms were tied up, stretched up above her head, but she had to look to be sure. She sighed when the full force of the predicament she was in came to her. She was tied to a bed because of a convicted rapist, a violent one at that.

She sat up as best she could and took a look at herself. She was happy to see her clothes still covered her body. She knew that happiness could be short lived, even shorter as she heard footsteps approaching.

She looked over to the door and felt like crying when she saw Ged walk into the room carrying a brown paper bag. She watched as he walked right over to the bed she was lying on and sat down next to her. He tipped the brown bag upside down, letting its contents fall out next to Jo.

She had to look at what it was. She saw a pack of bandages, a pack of sterilized cloth, some gauze, a bottle of anti-septic ointment, a pair of rubber gloves, a roll of fishing-line and a sewing needle. "You're no good to me if you bleed to death." Ged told her as he pulled the gag from her mouth.

"What are you going to do with all that?" she asked, dreading the answer she had a feeling she was going to get.

"Stitch you up before you bleed all over my house, more than you already have." he said as he pulled the gloves on.

Jo didn't have time to even think about it before Ged poured the antiseptic ointment over her wound. It was like rubbing salt in a wound and she had to grit her teeth to stop herself muttering all the cuss words in the world at him. He used the sterilized cloth to roughly wipe her wound. She couldn't hold in gasp of pain. She knew the wound had to be cleaned out but he wasn't even trying to be gentle, not that she was expecting him to be.

She was thankful when she heard him drop the blood stained cloth into the brown paper bag, her moment free of pain came to an end when he poured more antiseptic ointment on her wound. "Son-of-a-bitch!" she muttered through gritted teeth, unable to hold it in.

Ged just laughed and picked up the roll of fishing line. "You think that hurts, wait till I start to stitch you up."

"The wound has to be properly sterilized and stitched, preferably by a professional not a convicted rapist."

"Hence the antiseptic ointment..." Ged said as he poured the remainder of the bottle over her wound. Jo groaned in pain and wished she could hit him with the damn bottle. "And for your information, I am a professional. I was in the military for 6 years. I was taught how to do stiches in my first month. You just never know when a skill like that might come in handy." he said as he threaded the fishing line through the needle. "This is sort of a DIY attempt at it though."

Jo felt like her heart was going to fall out of her ass. She had only had stitches a few times in her life but each time she had been given something to numb the area and it had still hurt like hell. She quickly realised she was getting nothing for the pain as Ged leant over her and prepared to make the first stitch.

She lay back and tried to think of something else, something but the pain she knew she was about to be in. "You might want to bite down on something because this is really going to hurt." he told her.

Jo ignored him and just continued trying to think of anything else. She tried thinking of her children but the moment she felt the needle pierce into her skin she could think of nothing but the pain. She gripped the pillow by her hand as best she could and squeezed it tight.

She tried to breathe through the pain but seven stiches later and she was in burning, blinding pain. "Please just stop for a minute, please!" she begged him.

"Almost done, suck it up." he told her.

"Please stop!" she cried out.

He was really jabbing the needle into her and pulling it tight, she knew he was purposely trying to cause her more pain than necessary. "Get off me! Get away from me!" she yelled at him.

He reached up and pulled the gag back up into her mouth. She closed her eyes and bit down on the gag, trying not to throw up from the awful taste.

~0~0~0~0~

The team were working over the second scene. They had been there for hours and every one of them hours had been a waste of time that they knew Jo didn't have. "This is pathetic!" Mac cried. "These scenes are too old to find anything now!"

The others could hear the frustration in his voice and they too felt it. They all wished there was something they could find but they knew Mac was right.

"Look, let's split up. Danny and Hawkes you go to the third scene. Lindsay, you and I will take the fourth. Let's go, we only have 38 hours left."

They all headed off to their cars. Hawkes was riding along with Danny due to still having to be on crutches even though his leg felt much better. His mind was too concerned with the safe return of his friend to be worried about pain.

Mac had just climbed back into his car, ready to head to the next scene, when his phone rang. Knowing who it would be he picked up his cell and answered. "Mac Taylor." he said.

"That's no way to answer. You say 'Yes Gamekeeper?" said Gerard.

"Yes Gamekeeper?" Mac said through gritted teeth.

"How are you doing?" Gerard asked.

"We've found nothing at the first or second scenes. It's been too long. Any evidence has been washed away in last week's rain and anything we could find now could potentially be contaminated anyway."

"And there's me thinking you wanted to get Jo back."

"I do!"

"Then work harder!" Ged spat at him.

"If there's no evidence then there's no evidence. I can't just magic it up out of thin air!" Mac yelled.

Ged stood there looking at Jo who was still tied to the bed, the gag over her mouth. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a recording device. Jo had watched him playing about with it earlier, until he had found the right spot. He held the recorder up to the phone and hit play.

Mac sat in his car and closed his eyes as he heard Jo, heard the pain in her voice. _"Please stop! Get off me! Get away from me!"_

Mac's mind began to race with horrible thoughts, horrible images flashed before his eyes.

"I suggest you start learning magic tricks, Mac. If you don't start finding some evidence soon…well I'll kiss Alabama here goodbye for you..."

Mac glared out of the front window, the phone still up by his ear even though the line had now gone dead. He threw the phone onto the passenger's seat and let his head flop back and his eyes close as he thought about Jo and a conversation they had had a few weeks back.

_Mac was sat in his office, in the comfy chairs as opposed to his usual spot behind his desk. The current case was getting to him. Another young girl had been raped and killed and they had DNA telling them who had done it but had not found him yet, and Mac knew this guy was going to keep on raping and killing until he was caught._

_He looked up when he heard a knock. He watched Jo step into his office and walk over to the chair next to him. He didn't pay much attention to the paper bag she put down next to her. She sat right next to him and gave him a playful nudge. Finally he managed a small smile. "What's up doc?" she asked, jokingly._

"_How many more victims is Gerard going to leave for us to find?" Mac thought out loud. _

_Jo shook her head, "I don't know. All I do know is we are going to do all we can to find and stop him."_

"_We should have already found him by now."_

"_Is that why you're beating yourself up in here?" Jo asked. _

_Mac nodded and frowned. _

"_Mac, all we can do is our best. Just because we haven't found Gerard yet does not mean that you aren't doing your job."_

_Mac looked at her and although he knew she was right he couldn't bring himself to cheer up any. Jo playfully nudged him again and then reached down beside her and grabbed the paper bag. She placed it down in his lap and said, "I haven't seen you eat a thing all day."_

_Mac laughed as he opened up the bag and looked inside. He reached in and pulled out a sandwich, then an apple, followed by a chocolate bar and a bottle of water. He turned to look at Jo and with a smile said, "Thank you."_

"_Someone has to look after you." Jo said. _

"_Why is it always you?" he asked, happy it was always her. _

"_I guess it's because I care about you." she said as she reached up and stroked his face._

_Mac just looked back at her, finding himself, as usual, getting lost in her chocolate brown eyes that he loved so much. _

He opened his eyes and pushed the thought away. He reached forward and started up the engine to his car and pulled out. He was off to the next crime scene. _He needed Jo back. He had to tell her he cared about her too, more than he should._

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading. Please review and let me know what you think.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks to all reading and reviewing!**

**Sorry this has taken a while to update. I've got so much personal stuff going on right now, constantly one thing after another so I'm throwing updates in as and where I can, but hopefully it l get easier now.**

**A/N: Parts in Italics are flashbacks.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine if you've seen them on CSI: NY.**

**Chapter 4**

Ged was leading Jo to the bathroom. It had been hours and hours since he had finished stitching her up and although she was still sore as hell she was relieved to not be bleeding anymore. She walked into the bathroom and turned to face him, glaring at him, waiting for him to leave.

She was a little annoyed when he leant against the door frame, glaring at her. "You wanna watch?" she asked.

"You know this isn't personal." he replied.

"Excuse me?"

"It didn't have to be you is what I'm saying. You were just closest to the door, the easiest one to grab." he told her, thinking back to the night of the explosion.

_He had waited outside, hidden from sight, for them all to walk into the empty warehouse. He had given them a minute before he had detonated the home-made explosives he had placed inside. He jumped as the bang of the explosion echoed around him. "Whoo!" he cheered as he ran towards the door. _

_He pulled his scarf up over his nose and mouth, not wanting to breathe in the smoke, and kicked the door open and looked inside. He could see the motionless CSI's through the flames. He couldn't wipe the smile off his face. Then he looked down and saw Jo, just a few feet away from him. _

"I watched you all for weeks. I was trying to decide who was best to take but in the end I worked out that you all considered each other to be of equal importance, but I saw how Detective Taylor looked at you."

Jo looked at him, a little startled by his words. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

Ged pushed away from the doorframe and said, "I'm talking about the look in his eyes when he sees you... You're a smart woman, Alabama, don't pretend that you haven't seen it too." he said as he moved closer to her.

"I don't know what you're talking about." she spat at him, a little angrily. She was backing away from him, not wanting him so close to her.

He suddenly ran at her, closing the small gap between them. He slammed his body hard against hers, pinning her against the wall behind her. His hand came up to grab her throat before she could try to stop him, she could only try to peel it away as she struggled to breathe. "I'm talking about the way his eyes snake over your body, how they undress you." he said.

Jo knew the way Mac looked at her, it was the same way she looked at him, but Ged made it sound so dirty and cheap. "You're pathetic!" she spat at him, the words barely able to escape her lips.

His grip tightened around her throat. "Tell me sweetness," he said mocking her accent. "Has he fucked you yet?"

Jo tried to push against him, she wanted to hit him as hard as she could but she couldn't from the way he had her pinned against the wall.

"You can tell me." he laughed. "I bet if he hasn't he thinks about it all the time." he said as his eyes scanned Jo's body. "You're devastatingly beautiful. I bet most guys just see you as a fuck when they look at you."

Jo tried to ignore him as she struggled to stay conscious. He released his grip just long enough for her to take two gulps of air before he grabbed her again. "I wonder if Detective Taylor will still want you if I send you back to him…a little used up. I wonder if he would just think of me each time he looked at you, always knowing that I had beaten him to it. I think every time he thought about touching you he would see my face." he said menacingly. "A guy can get lonely and well, a beauty like you doesn't come along every day. I may just not be able to control myself much longer." he said, taunting her.

Using every bit of strength she had Jo pushed him off her. He allowed it and stepped back laughing. "Just you keep that in mind, Alabama." he said as he walked over to the door. He turned to face her and said, "I can do whatever the hell I want to you." he told her before he walked out and slammed the door shut behind him.

Jo wanted to throw something, anything, but she had nothing so instead she just let out a frustrated growl before she sat down on the edge of the bath tub. She was angry, humiliated and frustrated and it was too much to handle. Her tears began to fall so quick that she didn't have time to try to hold them back, so, she simply let them fall.

~0~0~0~0~

The hours that Ged had given the team seemed to fly by. Before they knew it they had less than four hours left. They were at the final crime scene. Mac was refusing to let them leave until they found something, not that any of them wanted to go anywhere anyway. However the long hours were beginning to tell on them.

They had all noticed how Hawkes was finding it more and more difficult to move around as easy. He was the one who Mac had said _could_ go, but he refused to go. Jo was his friend and until she was back safe he wouldn't rest.

They had found some evidence at the third and fourth scene, but all the leads they thought they might have discovered turned out to be dead ends and they were left with nothing but this fifth and final scene. It was a loading dock behind an abandoned nightclub and being the most recent scene it was also the most untainted scene, but so far they had found nothing.

Danny, who was searching nearby to Lindsay, saw her stand up and stretch her aching back. He pushed himself up and walked over to her. He put his hands on her shoulders and gently rubbed them. "That feel great." she told him.

"Look, why don't you take a break." Danny said to her.

"Jo doesn't have time for me to take a break." Lindsay pointed out. "What if we don't find anything here, Danny? What then?"

"It won't come to that. We'll think of something." he said as he pulled her into a supportive hug.

Mac was stood watching them. It made him smile a little that they had each other for comfort. He turned around and continued going over the scene. However, he had to stop when he thought about Jo, about the day when they had first visited this scene.

_He held the tape up for Jo to duck under and then walked along with Flack who gave him the basics they needed to know. He then left them to go talk to some other officers. _

"_I can't believe he's killed again." Jo said to Mac as they crouched down by the newest vic. _

"_He's getting cockier. This murder took place just a few feet away from the main street." Mac pointed out._

"_What's it going to take to stop him?" Jo thought out loud._

"_I can't wait to catch this guy so all this will be over." Mac said. _

He shook his head as he thought about how wrong he had been. They had caught the wrong guy and now Jo was paying because of it. The sound of a crash made him stand up and look around. When he saw where it had come from he went running over to Hawkes who was lay on the floor by a big red dumpster.

The others ran over to him too, all of them offering Hawkes a hand. He could only sit up, holding his leg. "Don, I need you to take him to the hospital." Mac said.

"Sure thing." Flack said as he and Danny helped Hawkes to his feet.

"No, I need to stay and help." Hawkes said. There was obvious pain in his voice.

"No, you need to go to the hospital. I won't be responsible for another one of my team being hurt. Now go!" he said.

Before he had chance to argue, Don and Flack carried Hawkes towards Flack's car. Mac stood there and sighed, feeling guilty for having let Hawkes stay when he knew he should have gone. Lindsay knew what he was thinking and said, "Mac, you know you're not responsible for Hawkes getting hurt, or for what's happening to Jo."

"I was so fixed on getting someone for these murders that I didn't stop to think we might have gotten it wrong."

"Mac, the evidence was all there. We've gone all over these scenes and we've found nothing more. I think Cullen's just playing with us."

Mac nodded, thinking she was right. He couldn't look her in the eyes so he looked down at the floor. That was when he noticed it. The dumpster Hawkes had fallen against had been pushed sideways by him. He crouched down and looked closer at what he hadn't seen the first time they had been here.

Lindsay crouched down next to him and looked at the same thing. It was a grid and the grate of it was partially broken. They both took out their Maglite's and looked into the grid. It was Mac who pulled on a glove and reached into the shallow gird.

He pulled out a role of silver duct tape. They both studied it. It had been torn at the end, not cut with scissors or any other type of bladed instrument. There were also some red fibres stuck to the side of it.

"All the vics were tied up with silver duct tape." Lindsay pointed out.

"Maybe we just finally got lucky." Mac said.

~0~0~0~0~

Jo was pacing around the panic room. Her stomach kept making loud hungry gurgling sounds. She was starving. She couldn't remember the last time she had been given something to eat. She'd heard nothing from Ged in the last few hours. She didn't know if it was because he was out or if it was just night time and he was sleeping. _She hated that she couldn't keep track of time._

She walked over to the intercom and pushed the button. "Are you there?" she asked. She heard nothing back. "Cullen, are you there?" she shouted into it.

"What?" he yelled.

She could immediately tell he wasn't happy. "Can I have something to eat, please?" she asked.

"No!" he yelled at her.

She got no reply. Instead the lights were turned out on her. "Son-uv-a-bitch!" she muttered as she slapped the door.

~0~0~0~0~

Mac and Lindsay were back at the lab. Lindsay was dusting the tape. Mac had retrieved the tape from the last vic's evidence collection. They had matched the end of the roll they'd just found and the pieces of tape from the evidence collection up like a puzzle. Now they were just praying they would get something off the roll that could give them a new suspect, _if there were one._

"I have a print!" Lindsay exclaimed.

"Let's get it in the system." Mac said, "And pray it gives us something in the next two hours."

~0~0~0~0~

After only a few minutes in AFIS they had the name of a guy with a long and nasty rap sheet. They had also managed to identify the red fibres that Mac had pulled from the duct tape, it was carpet upholstery. A search though the DVM database had told them everything else they needed to know.

Mac and Flack had wasted no time in going to the guys address. They pulled up on the street and Mac instantly saw the white van parked in the driveway. They sat there for a minute just watching the house. The garage door was open and they watched as their guy walked out carrying a box. He loaded it into the van and turned and walked back into the garage.

"Let's go." Mac said.

They got out and silently made their way towards the garage. Mac glanced into the back of van and immediately noticed the red carpet.

"Can I help you?"

Both Mac and Flack looked up to see the man come out of the garage carrying another box.

"James Murphy?" Mac asked.

"Who's asking?" James replied.

"NYPD." Flack told him.

James threw the box at them and bolted across the front yard. Both Flack and Mac wasted no time in chasing after him. Flack jumped up on a wall and crashed down on top of James. James tried to struggle beneath him but it was no good. Flack already had the cuffs on him and was reading him his rights.

Mac walked back over to the van. He looked into it and a blood stain on the carpet caught his eyes. _He just knew they had their guy, the real killer._

~0~0~0~0~

Jo was lay on her mattress, she was still feeling incredibly hungry. She wasn't expecting it when the lights came on, blinding her. She heard the door suddenly _'whoosh' _open. She tried to sit up but Ged's foot slammed against her chest. It knocked her flat on her back and knocked the wind out of her.

She wanted to clutch her chest and try to will the pain away but Ged fell down on top of her. He was straddling her and her left arm was trapped to the side on her, under his leg, his knee pressing down hard and painfully on it. She began to thrash beneath him, trying to free herself. It got her nowhere, he was too heavy, but it did seem to piss him off.

He grabbed her right hand and pinned it to the mattress by the side of her head. Jo saw the set of pruning cutters that he pulled out of his belt. She watched in horror as he moved them over her finger. She began thrashing even harder beneath him as she cried out for help. Ged moved so that he was now kneeling on her legs. It meant she couldn't move them at all and it hurt like hell to try.

She could only try to pull his arms away as he took hold of her arm again and placed the blades either side of her finger.

"I told him! I told Mac if they failed I would send you back to him in pieces. You have him to blame for this." Ged spat at her.

She turned her face away and waited for the sickening pain she knew she was about to feel. She was too scared out of her wits to hear the TV that was blaring in the room outside hers but Ged heard it. After waiting for the pain and not receiving it she turned and looked up at him. He was clearly listening to the TV that she suddenly heard.

"Detectives have now discovered that it was in fact another man who was responsible for the deaths of the five school girls raped and killed recently." The news reporter said. "James Murphy was arrested by Detectives at his home just a short while ago."

Ged pushed himself up off Jo and walked out of the panic room. Jo barely heard the loud _'whoosh'_ of the door as it closed, she was too busy curling herself tight into a ball and wishing this was all over.

Ged grabbed his phone and dialled as he continued watching the news. Mac answered after just two rings. "Good work Detective Taylor. I knew you could do it, if you were given a push. I was just about to get the first part of Jo ready for shipping back to you. Looks like I won't have to now. Thank God for that push, right?"

"More like a violent shove!" Mac spat back at him.

Ged just laughed and replied "Hey, you say po-tat-o I say pot-ato."

"When and where do I get Jo back?" Mac asked, getting straight down to business.

"Get her back? What are you talking about Detective Taylor? Your works not finished yet."

Mac wanted to kick himself. He should have known not to trust Ged. "You son-of-a-bitch, you said…."

"I said you get her back when you're done. You've only just started!" Ged snapped at him.

"You wanted your name clearing for killing those girls and it's cleared! It is done! Now give her back!"

"But I'm not, not with you and your team. I never said you got Jo back after you cleared my name, I said you would get her back when you were done! For a CSI you really should be more observant, Mac."

"What the hell do I have to do to get her back you fuck?" Mac yelled, unable to hold in his rage and frustration.

"You're clearly not thinking straight right now or else you wouldn't be speaking to me like this! Up until now I haven't really hurt your precious Jo, but that could change."

Mac bit his tongue and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry." he lied. "Just tell me what else I have to do?" he asked.

Ged took a deep breath and said, "No. Not tonight. You need to learn you can't speak to me like that. I'm the one in control here, Mac, I'm the gamekeeper. I'm the one who has Jo, and you and I both know what I am capable of, of what I am. Like I told Jo, she's a very devastatingly beautiful woman and the nights are getting colder. I could easily use her as a way to warm up and don't for a second think I won't."

Mac was about to answer when the line went dead. He wanted to slam his own phone down but he knew he couldn't. If it broke Ged would not be able to use it to call him and he had no idea of the repercussions that could have on Jo and he just wanted to keep her safe.

A little part of him couldn't help but think that he might never get her back, no matter how many of Ged's rules he followed, how many of his games he played along with.

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading. Please review and let me know what you think.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing. **

**Disclaimer: Not mine**

**Chapter 5**

Mac was sat in his office, behind his desk. He'd spent the last 30 or more hours in there. He refused to go anywhere until Ged had called him. His mind was racing with thoughts of Jo and the terrible things she could be going through thanks to Ged, just because he had pissed him off. He promised himself that he would keep his temper under control next time he spoke to Ged.

No matter how long a time he stared at the phone on his desk or at his cell phone next to it they still refused to ring. He waited and waited, _nothing._

He looked up from the phones when he heard a knock. He saw Sid standing in the doorway, a sympathetic look on his face and two cups of coffee in his hands. He walked over to Mac and placed the cups down on his desk and then sat down opposite him.

Mac offered a weak smile and said, "Sid, I appreciate the coffee but I'd rather be on my own."

"And I came here not only to give you the coffee but because I have something to say."

"What's that?" Mac asked, trying not to sound as un-amused as he felt.

"I know you're worrying about Jo, but you should give her a little more credit." Sid began.

Mac looked at him in utter confusion. "You came here with coffee just to say that?"

"After the incident with that monster John Curtis, I went to see Jo at her apartment, to take her some flowers and a get well card…" Sid said, seeing it clear as day in his mind.

_He knocked on Jo's door holding a huge bouquet of flowers, some chocolates and a card in his hand. He admired Jo, had since the first day they had met. She had been there to offer him support after he had almost lost his sight from an exploding bullet in a DB. She'd shown then she was his friend and he was here now to show her the same thing. _

_He smiled when a young girl answered the door. He knew it was Jo's adopted daughter, Ellie. "You must be Ellie. I'm Sid." he said. Ellie gave him a curious look. "I work with your Mom." he told her. _

"_Sweetie, who is it?" he heard Jo shout. _

_Ellie opened the door more so Jo could see who was standing there, and allowing him to see Jo. "Sid." she said as she pushed herself up from the couch, he could see it was a struggle and clearly painful for her. _

_Ellie stepped aside for him to come in. "You don't have to get up." he said, trying to rush over to her, "I just wanted to bring you these." he said as he handed her the flowers and chocolates as she now stood in front of him._

_Jo smiled at him, but it wasn't her usual full beaming smile, he guessed that had something to do with the angry bruise that lay around her mouth, making it painful for her to smile._

"_Mom, I'll be in my room." Ellie said. _

"_Okay sweetheart." Jo said giving her the same half smile._

_It made Sid feel a little sad that she couldn't even smile properly; even her smiley eyes didn't seem as bright. He couldn't help but observe all the bruises on her face. It made him angry to see them. Jo knew he was looking at her battle wounds. "You should see the other guy." she joked as she walked into the kitchen to find a vase for her flowers. "These are beautiful, Sid!" _

_Sid followed her to the kitchen but still couldn't find words. He could only see her bruises. Finally he said, "He should never have been able to do that to you. I wish I could have traded places with you somehow or have been there to help you."_

_Jo put the flowers down and walked over to him. She took his hand in her own and said, "I'm fine Sid, really." The tears that had suddenly built in her eyes told him otherwise._

"_I'm sorry." he said. "I didn't mean to upset you."_

"_You didn't. It's just…It's good to know I have friends who care about me so much."_

_Sid smiled and held his arms out for Jo who stepped into them and wrapped her own arms around him as he enveloped her into a friendly hug…_

Sid smiled as he thought back. "I think knowing that we won't give up till we find her will keep her strong."

"I hope you're right, because Ged will do everything he can to break her down. He's a violent rapist and…I think if he hasn't already he will make Jo suffer that way." Mac said. The words tasted as bitter as they sounded but he couldn't help think them.

"If he has, we will be here to help her get through it. So long as we can get her back alive we can be there for her to help her heal whatever way she has to." Sid said.

"And what if we don't get her back alive?"

"Let's not make that an option." Sid replied.

~0~0~0~0~

Jo was sat at a small table in the bedroom where the panic room was located. Ged was sat opposite her, a gun in his hand, pointed at her as she ate. He had brought her a McDonald's chicken sandwich meal. It was far from what she would have liked to eat but seeing as it was the first thing she had eaten properly in days it actually tasted pretty fantastic.

She stuffed some fries into her mouth and washed them down with some Sprite. She sat back and decided to take her time with what was left of her meal, _make it last_. She'd been trying to make her own profile on Ged, more than what they already knew about him, so she decided to try to ask him some questions.

"I thought you were going to let me go once Mac and the team had cleared your name?" she asked.

Ged just shook his head and didn't say a word.

"Are you ever going to let me go?" she asked.

This time he just shrugged. He was really beginning to piss her off. She wanted to smack the smirk right off his face. "You know that eventually they will work out where this place is. They'll come here, arrest your sorry ass and I'll be free." she told him.

"We won't be here when they get here. Now shut the hell up and eat your god-damn meal. We've got a phone call to make."

"To Mac?" she asked.

"What part of shut the fuck up and eat don't you understand?" he said as he glared at her.

"Why do you need me to talk to Mac?"

"EAT!" he yelled.

"How long are you going to keep toying with them?" she yelled back.

Ged got up faster than she could, his fist slammed fast and hard into her face knocking her right out of the chair and onto the floor. He reached down and pulled her back onto her feet, only to hit her in the face again. This time she fell into the table, knocking her meal to the floor.

Ged grabbed her and flipped her over onto her back. He shoved himself between her legs and leant over her as he pinned her to the table, easily holding both her wrists in just one hand. Jo could already feel the grip causing bruises and it hurt but she refused to show him her pain. That was until he hit her in the face again.

The impact was harder than any other time he had hit her had been. It left her seeing stars and she felt her mouth began to fill with blood. She used her tongue to feel around her mouth, wincing in pain as her tongue scraped across a broken tooth. Another fell out as her tongue brushed against it.

She managed to sit up slightly and spit out the blood that had pooled in her mouth, and the tooth. She tried to push herself right up but it was no good. She closed her eyes and just waited for the pain her entire face, and now her mouth, was feeling to pass, but it didn't budge. It just got worse and her mouth began to fill with blood again.

She opened her eyes to see Ged holding a cell phone in his hand, "Now, you're gonna talk to Mac like a good girl."

"And say what exactly?" she said, having to swallow the blood in her mouth, sick as it made her feel.

"Tell him how I just hit you for all I care. I just want him to hear your voice. You sound so much weaker than you did the other day. "

He shoved the phone to her ear and held it there. She didn't want to do as he told her but the idea of hearing Mac's voice sounded pretty good to her. Suddenly there it was, "Mac Taylor."

"Got someone here who wants to talk to you, Mac!" Ged shouted.

"Mac?" Jo said.

"Jo? Oh thank God! Are you okay?" he asked.

Jo felt tears rolling down her face. She sniffled and tried to compose herself. "I'm still in one piece…barely." she said. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't keep the pain out of her voice.

"That's enough!" Ged said as he placed the phone by his own ear. "Are you in a better mood today, Mac?"

"Yes Gamekeeper." Mac replied, trying to show how he was willing to co-operate and play along.

"Good, then I'll call you back once I've dealt with Jo." he said, hanging up the instant he finished speaking.

~0~0~

Mac put the phone down and leant forward over his desk. He buried his face into his hands and took a few deep breaths. He hated how Ged was loving stretching this thing out, how he loved tormenting him. _God he wanted Jo back._

~0~0~

Jo glared up at Ged. She knew he was just messing Mac around to wind him up, he wanted an excuse to be able to beat her. Not that he really needed one, which she found out and he grabbed her and threw her to the floor.

She skidded across the shiny wooden floor, her whole body screaming out in a painful protest. Ged was by her side in minutes. He went to kick her but she grabbed his foot and pulled, sending him crashing to the floor on his back.

She tried to push herself up but she had barely got to her hands and knees when he kicked her arm from under her. She was flat on her back when he crashed down on top of her. She struggled beneath him, but he grabbed her arms and pinned them down and used his knees to pin her legs. She had to cry out in pain, she just couldn't hold it in.

"Stop pissing me off, Jo! You think you know what I'm capable of, you have no idea, but keep pissing me off and you're gonna find out!" he spat at her.

"Get off of me!" she roared at him.

He glared at her for a moment then asked, "What the hell made you so tough?" Jo just glared at him. "You know you fighting me is a real turn on, just the way I like it." he said as he brought his lips to her face. Jo turned her face away from him but it didn't stop him. He planted wet lustful kisses over her cheek, and across her jaw and down onto her neck.

She just closed her eyes and tried to push herself up. She had to scream in pain as Ged bit her shoulder so hard each tooth broke her skin. She had seen this abuse evident on his victims and it had always made her incredibly angry, now she knew just how painful it was too.

"Get off me!" she cried out.

Ged laughed at her and pushed himself to his feet, dragging her with him. He shoved her into the panic room so hard she fell into the far wall and cracked her head. The impact was enough to make her legs give out beneath her. She slid down the wall as unconsciousness took over her beaten body.

~0~0~0~0~

Mac and the team were sat in the staff room, the room they had gathered in many times for movie night, times when Jo had been there with them. Mac couldn't help but notice the empty chair next to him where she would usually sit. His cell phone was sat on the table in front of them all. They were sat in silence, waiting for Ged's call. The only sound in the room was the faint sound of the machines and other techs working in the lab. Every one of them was fixed on Mac's phone, willing it to ring. Finally it did. Mac snatched it up, answered and flicked it straight onto speaker then placed it back down.

"Gamekeeper?" he said.

"Mac. I hope the team is there with you because this involves all of you."

Mac glanced around at all the people who needed to be there. Danny, Lindsay, Flack, Adam , Hawkes and Sid. "We're all here." he confirmed.

"Good.

"How's Jo?" Mac asked.

"Sore!" Ged answered, "We had a little disagreement before I made this call."

Mac and the others all felt anger rise up in them, that and fear for their friend. "I'm begging you, please don't hurt her." Mac said.

"Do as I say and I won't. This is the last thing you have to do to get Jo back."

"Tell us." Mac said, taking a deep breath to calm himself.

"Over the last few months I killed 6 people. You'll find their bodies at various locations. Each one will leave you a clue to finding the next one, once you've found the sixth you'll get Jo. "

"I don't get it." Mac said. "You asked us to clear your name for murder, now you want us to find the bodies of people you_ have_ killed?" he, like the others, were so confused by it.

"What can I say, I don't like being blamed for things I didn't do. But I do take pride in my work. This has been months in the making, Mac. A game I created just for you and your team and me to play."

"Why?" Mac asked.

"Why not?" Ged replied coldly. "I've been out of work for a while and well I found I got bored easily so, figured I'd create this game. You'know, have some fun."

"You think murder is fun?" Mac asked.

"Say's the man who chose to work around murder every day."

"I work to stop the murderer. There's a difference."

"Yet you've killed many a time, come to think about it, which one of you Detective's hasn't murdered someone. What makes any of you different from me?"

"Where will we find the first body?" Mac asked, getting off the subject and straight to the point.

Ged just laughed. "The truth isn't always so easy, is it?"

"I just want Jo back. Once I have her then you and I can talk truths."

"Getting Jo back depends on how well you all do. I'll only tell you the first scene, the rest you'll have to work out for yourselves."

"Fine." Mac said. "Where?"

"The Central Park Point, you know the little peninsula. It was the perfect spot to hide a body on a quiet night. The next few weeks saw a lot of bird watchers who just helped demolish the scene and any traces that I had been there. That body is waiting for you and your team to find. It's a fairly well known place so I'm sure you'll find it. If not, I have no problem keeping Jo around. Even with a bruised face she is beautiful. "

"We'll find it." Mac promised him.

"We'll see." Ged replied before he hung up.

Mac sat forward and let his head drop into his hands. The others all watched him, all feeling as desperate as he did. It startled them all when Mac slammed his hands against the table and stood up. "Adam, did you trace the call?" he asked.

Adam was sat behind equipment he had set up when waiting for the call, but it had done no good. "No, Mac. He's using some sort of cloned phone. It bounces from signal to signal. It's almost impossible to trace it."

"Well make it possible!" he yelled. "The rest of you let's find this body!" he yelled before he stormed out.

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading. Hope you liked, please review and let me know.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing. Hope you enjoy this chapter. I will warn you the ending is a little dark.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

**Chapter 6**

Mac and the team had raced over to The Point in Central Park. Another small team had been assigned to help, they had brought along some blood hounds which had all seemed instantly hot on the trail of something. It had taken just a few minutes for them to drag their handlers over to a spot right by the water's edge.

Over an hour had passed and the dogs were now gone and the team had found what they had come looking for. It was a wooden box and from the stench coming from it they knew it was their DB. They were all stood back watching as it was lifted from the ground. It creaked like it was going to burst open but it didn't.

"Lindsay I want you to come back to the lab with me." Mac said. "Flack, Danny, Hawkes you're in charge here. I don't think there's going to be anything to find but we need to keep this scene sealed until we know for sure. For Jo's sake we really can't afford to miss a thing."

Everyone nodded, all ready to follow their instructions. Mac walked over to Hawkes and asked, "Are you sure you're up for this? If you're not…"

"I'm fine, Mac. But thanks anyway."

Mac patted him on the shoulder and then left them to get to work. He had to get back to the lab to find out how their vic had died, and how they would help him get Jo back.

~0~0~0~0~

It hadn't taken long to get back to the Crime Lab. Outside, it was swarming with Reporters, the street was littered with News vans. The team had gathered a lot of unwanted attention over the last couple of days. Somehow it had gotten out that Jo was still alive and that the team were the only ones who could help her.

As he rode the elevator alone up to the Crime Lab, Mac couldn't help but think how much he hated Reporters. Mac was so far _'putting off'_ orders fill them in on the case. He didn't see how it would help.

He stepped out of the lift and walked towards his office, thoughts of Jo racing wildly in his head. He was about to sit down and hide behind his desk for a while when he heard someone shout out his name, heard their heavy footsteps charging towards him.

He turned to see Russ Josephson storming towards his office. He continued to watch as he came straight into his office and right over to him. He was a little shocked when Russ shoved him back but he managed to stay calm and held his hand up to stop Adam who was about to come racing over.

"What the hell is going on, Mac? You don't bother to tell me Jo's alive, I have to hear it off the news! Thank God the kids are away camping with my brother and his family so they didn't have to hear it the same way!"

"Russ…"

"Jo may not be my wife now, Mac, but she was and she is the Mother of my son. I deserve to know if she is still alive. We all deserve to know!" Russ yelled.

"I know and I should have told you, but I haven't had a minute to breathe and neither has my team. We've been struggling to find Jo, to get her back. Right now I don't even know for sure we're going to get her back alive…and those kids shouldn't have to lose their mother twice."

Russ looked at him and Mac could see the tears building in his eyes. He suddenly felt really guilty. "I'm sorry." Mac said.

Russ nodded. "Me too. I should have known you'd be doing everything you can to find her."

Mac smiled and said, "She'd do the same if it were the other way around."

Russ half smiled and said, "Mac, I want to be a part of this. Please, let me help get her back."

Mac thought about it for a second, another set of hands on board would only help. He nodded. "Okay." he replied.

~0~0~0~0~

It was a few hours later and the team, plus Russ, were sat around the large table awaiting Sid's results from the post mortem. It was easier this way, to have them all together because they all needed this information and Hawkes and Danny had some more to offer. Lindsay also had something to share about the makeshift coffin the body had been in. Finally _Sid walked in and it could all begin. _

Mac quickly glanced over at Russ and offered a quick smile before he began. "Sid, what did you find?" he asked.

"Our vic was a Caucasian female, early to mid-twenties and also in her third trimester of pregnancy."

They all felt sickened by what he had said.

"So we have two victims." Lindsay said as she sat back in her chair and put what Sid had said to what she had discovered for herself when examining the box. _It made her incredibly angry._ Danny reached under the table and gave her hand a gentle, reassuring squeeze.

"I can see no obvious signs to cause of death. She wasn't shot or stabbed. She _did_ have a broken arm. Her left radius bone was snapped clean in half."

"Why did he bury her only to have us find her? I mean why in a box, why not just burry her in the ground, surely it would have been easier…" Adam asked.

"On the inside of the box I found some food wrappers and a couple of bottles of water. There were also scratch marks on the lid…she was alive when she was buried in that box." Lindsay said as she shoved the pictures across the table.

They could all see the clear bloodied scratch marks on the lid of the box, and the scattered food wrappers.

"What's that small circular hole in the lid?" Russ asked.

Danny took a look at the picture and found a picture of some evidence they had found. It was a narrow pipe. "We found a few pieces of narrow piping at the scene. It was stomped into the mud, but put together it created a line of pipe about 5ft long."

"I'm guessing that this pipe went through that hole. We found enough to head straight from the coffin up through to the surface of the earth above the coffin. It would have offered her a supply of oxygen." Hawkes said.

"Until it was stomped on." Russ said.

"Probably by a birdwatcher." Mac said, imagining it in his head; _someone's heavy boot coming down onto the inch or two of pipe sticking up from the earth, crushing it into the mud. Inside her coffin the victim lay unsuspecting and unknowing that she had at best just two hours left to live._

~0~0~0~0~

Jo was sat on her mattress using the torn up rags she had made, for the wound on her side, to clean up the blood on her face. The entire left side of her face was throbbing with pain. She couldn't see because she had no mirror but she was sure her face was just one big bruise. _It certainly felt it._ She was trying to rest her tongue to one side of her mouth so as not to snag it, again, on the broken tooth in her mouth. _It was so damn sharp that her tongue was already cut to ribbons from it._

She leant back and rested her head against the wall behind her and tried not to think about how much her face hurt. She had also used the rags to wipe the blood away from the bite marks that covered her shoulders, they too were also badly bruised. She hardly turned to face it when the door opened with its usual loud _woosh. _She wanted toscream in anger and pain when Ged threw a pile of clothes at her, all of them hitting her right in the face.

She looked down at the pair of pale blue jeans, white strappy t-shirt and the lilac shirt that lay in her lap. They were clearly women's clothes but ones that would be far too big for her. She wanted to ask him what the hell he wanted her to do with them but her head overruled her and told her not to speak because to do so would cause her face pain and risk her snagging her tongue on her tooth.

It didn't matter anyway because he suddenly told her, "Put them on, now!"

"Why?" she asked. Her own cloths were a mess, scorched, ripped and covered in blood but they were her own and she would rather keep them on than wear someone else's.

"I am not driving across town with you looking like that!"

Jo looked at him in total confusion. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"Just get changed!" he told her.

She shook her head. "Not until you tell me where we're going?" she said. She didn't want to go anywhere, she knew if they moved it could make it harder for the team to find them. _She'd never be rescued._

"Get changed!" Ged roared at her.

He really didn't have any patience what-so-ever. He didn't give her chance to stand up as he stormed over to her, grabbed her arm, and ripped her up from the mattress. She tried to push him off her but her strength was nothing against his.

He slammed her against the wall causing her to yelp in pain. She hadn't realised just how bruised her back actually was. He grabbed a hold of her shirt and pulled on it, practically ripping it right off her. "Is this what you want?" he yelled in her face.

"No!" she screamed in panic as he grabbed the waistband of her trousers and began to pull on them.

He paused and a smirk spread across his face. "You're no fun." he sneered as he let go of her. He took three big steps back into the doorway and stood there.

"Get changed." he told her again, this time he was calm.

"Get out then." she said as she glared at him, hating him so, so much.

Ged smiled and shook his head. "I don't think so."

Jo just shook her head in disgust. Knowing she had no choice she peeled off her shirt. _Literally peeled it off_, wincing in pain as it pulled away from burns that had bled and oozed dry against her shirt. She threw it down on the floor and was shocked by how blood soaked it was. She carefully reached down and grabbed the other top and pulled it on over her black bra. _Every little movement hurt like hell._

Next she unbuckled her belt and unbuttoned her trousers. She pushed them down over her matching black panties to reveal more burns and angry bruises. She had to choke back a sob, she looked a mess and she knew it probably made Ged happy to see her so injured.

She looked up at him and suddenly wished that _was_ what she saw in his eyes but what she _actually_ saw instead scared the hell out of her. He was looking at her with dark lustful eyes. She quickly kicked her trousers off and reached for the other ones, _but it was no use._

She hit the mattress before she even realised she'd been pushed down. Ged grabbed her arm and twisted her over onto her back. She looked up to find him staring right back at her. "Get off me!" she growled at him.

Ged ignored her and once more held both her wrists in one strong grasp. She tried to wriggle free from beneath him and tried not to panic as she heard him unbuckle his own belt and unbutton his jeans.

No matter how hard she tried she couldn't free herself from him. She knew what was about to happen and she hated herself for not being able to stop it. The moment she felt him thrust himself into her she wanted to scream in anger, in frustration, in pain. She couldn't wipe the look of pain off her face and it only seemed to encourage him to move faster and harder into her. _Her pain turned him on._

She still didn't give up trying to pull her wrists free from his grasp, no matter how much harder he held onto them, as he continued his assault, panting and groaning above her like a dog. An eternity felt like it had passed and she couldn't help but cry out in frustration and disgust as she felt him reach his climax inside her. He'd stolen his pleasure from her body and she'd been unable to stop him.

His body slumped down on top of her. His grip was gone from her wrists but she was still unable to push him off her. She could only lie there, trapped beneath him, feeling humiliated and dirty. She didn't even feel relieved when he pushed himself up off her. He pulled his trousers up and said, "Hurry up and get dressed." as he walked out of the room. He walked over to his bed and dropped down onto it and lay there as she struggled to push herself up.

She grabbed the trousers and began to put them on. She forced back tears and tried to ignore the throbbing pain between her legs as she pulled them up. She fastened them up and then held out her hands in front of her. They were shaking like leaves in a violent wind. She sniffled back a sob and pulled on the lilac shirt. It was far too big but it felt nice to have something loose covering her body.

She began doing up the buttons but stopped when her shaking hands made the simple task far too difficult. It was then she noticed the angry bruising that was forming around her wrists. It was suddenly too hard to hold in her tears and a few began to fall. She suddenly thought about all the rape victims she had come across in her job, lots of them, Serena Matthew's, Amanda Tanner and now she was to be added to that list too. Anger suddenly helped her force back her tears and regain composure.

"You ready?" she heard Ged ask her.

She looked up to find him standing in the doorway again. Without uttering a word to him she walked over to him. He grabbed her arm and pulled her aside so he could shut the panic room door.

_Woosh…_

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading.**

**Anyone wondering where Ged's taking Jo? I'd love to hear what you guys think.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks to people who are reading and reviewing. So, some of you want to see more Mac action, so I added some in the next chapter because it just wouldn't fit into this chapter. **

**Hope you all like. **

**Disclaimer: If you've seen them on CSI then they don't belong to me. **

**Chapter 7 **

Jo was sat in the passenger's seat in Ged's blue Sedan. The floor of his car was littered with fast food wrappings and it smelt like stale greasy fries but he refused to open the windows, despite the heat making all the smells in the car much worse.

Jo's wrists sat in her lap and were tied together with thick cable ties and a coat was thrown over her lap to hide the fact. Her ankles were also bound with cable ties. If she didn't wriggle too much they didn't cut into her flesh.

She turned to look at Ged when he finally came to a stop after a 45minute drive across town. Even without the windows open she could hear the sound of children's laughter. She turned to look out of the window at the school where dozens of small children played in the playground on their afternoon recess.

"Why are we here..?" she asked.

Ged seemed to be ignoring her but after a minute he spoke as he pointed over to the playground. "The little blonde on the swing set." he said.

Jo turned to look. The second she realised who she was looking at her stomach flipped, nauseatingly so. The little girl had her mother's eyes and her father's cheeky smile. _Lucy Messer._

"You stay the hell away from her!" Jo warned him angrily.

"Shut up, bitch! I have to make a call." Ged spat at her.

Jo was sure she was going to throw up. She couldn't stand the thought of Lucy being dragged into this nightmare. She watched with tear filled eyes as Ged took his phone out of his pocket and began dialling.

~0~0~

Mac and the team were just finishing up their sharing of information relating to the case when mac's phone began to ring. Everyone fell silent and just looked at one and other. Mac took out his phone, seeing who it was. He answered the call, immediately flicking it onto speaker and laying it down on the table.

"Gamekeeper," he said, "We found your first clue, or should I say victims."

"Good work guys. But this call is…well, let's say an incentive."

"An incentive to what?" Mac asked.

"An incentive to work harder and faster. Am I on speaker, Mac?" he asked.

"Yes." Mac said.

"Good. I want everyone in the room to introduce themselves."

Mac looked at them all, he turned to Flack first.

Reluctantly Flack did as the Gamekeeper told him. "Detective Don…"

"Ah ah! Address me as Gamekeeper or don't talk to me at all you dumbfuck!"

Flack had to bite down to stop him from responding in an equally offensive manner. Instead he hid the sarcasm from his voice as he said, "Forgive me, Gamekeeper. I'm Detective Don Flack."

"Next!" Ged yelled as Flack had barely finished.

"Gamekeeper, I'm Lab tech Adam Ross."

"Next!"

"Gamekeeper, I am Chief medical examiner Sid Hammerback."

"Next!"

"Gamekeeper, I'm Detective Dr Sheldon Hawkes."

"Kinda a mouthful isn't it?" Ged snapped.

"You can call me Hawkes, Gamekeeper." he said.

"I'll call you whatever the hell I want to call you! Now, who else do we have?" Ged asked.

"Russ Josephson." Russ said after an approving nod from Mac.

~0~0~

In the car Jo turned to look at the phone that was on speaker. Ged had a gun pointed at her knee so she wasn't about to speak because she didn't fancy a bullet being lodged into her knee. She was shocked that Russ was helping, but thankful at the same time. She also hoped that if he knew she was alive that Tyler and Ellie did too. She didn't want them mourning over her when they didn't have to. She never wanted them to feel one ounce of pain they didn't have to.

"You're new. What the hell do you have to do with this case?" she watched Ged ask.

~0~0~

Russ leant over the table and after another nod from Mac said, "I'm Jo's ex-husband. Please don't hurt her." he begged.

"Well that _is_ interesting! You know, you really should talk to Mac because I think he and Jo are fucking." Ged spat.

Everyone turned to look at Mac, who looked angry, not embarrassed. Russ quickly glanced at him too but turned back to face the phone. "What Jo does is up to her." he said.

"Whatever! You and I will talk again." he promised. "Where are the Messer's?" he asked.

"We're here too, Gamekeeper." Danny said.

"Ahh, Danny. Your better half there too?" he asked.

"I am, Gamekeeper." Lindsay said.

"Good, just the people I wanted to talk to." Ged said.

Lindsay and Danny both looked at each other, slightly confused, as was everyone else.

"Oh yeah, and why is that?" Danny asked.

"I wanted to speak to the parents of the little girl I'm watching."

Lindsay felt like her heart had fell out of her butt. Russ quickly grabbed hold of her as she stumbled sideways into him, her hand over her mouth out of fear she would throw up.

"You stay the hell away from our daughter!" Danny roared.

Ged just laughed, a menacing laugh that made Jo feel sick. "Relax, I like em young but not that young."

"Please, leave her out of this." Lindsay begged as tears flooded down her cheeks.

"I will. If you all stay working as hard as you are. Like I said, this was just an incentive call."

Mac sensed he was about to hang up. "Gamekeeper, is Jo with you?"

A half a minute of silence passed, Mac was sure he had hung up until he heard Jo's voice. "I'm here, Mac. We're outside Lucy's school." She managed to say before Ged hit her in the face with the butt of the gun.

They all heard the sound and heard her yelp in pain. Then the line finally went dead.

Lindsay practically fell into Danny's arm. He held her close as she cried. "Mac, we have to get Lucy somewhere safe." Danny said.

"I'll arrange for a car to go pick her up. She'll be put in a safe house. If you two want to join her, I understand." Mac said.

They both thought about it but Lindsay said, "No. I trust you to keep her safe Mac. I'll ask my mother to come down and stay with her."

Mac nodded and turned to Russ. "She's alive." he said to the FBI agent, seeing the look on his face. Russ just nodded.

They all seemed to fall silent for a moment, all of them were thankful Jo was still alive, of course they were. They just wished she was here with them and not with Ged.

"If he was outside Lucy's school with Jo he had to get her there in a car, he wouldn't risk walking there with her from wherever they've been." Mac suddenly thought out loud. "Adam, pull up all the nearby traffic cameras. I want to see if any of them picked up his car, maybe we can use an image to get a plate and then run it through the DMV, see what it gives us."

Adam nodded and ran off to do as instructed. Mac hoped finally they might have a way to get Jo back by playing against Ged, the Gamekeeper.

~0~0~0~0~

Jo glared angrily out of the window at the street as it passed by. She turned to look at Ged and asked, "You do realise that the team will find you, especially now you've threatened Lucy."

"Let them come, Alabama. We won't be there when they find the house."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"We'll be miles and miles away before they even work out where the house is." he said.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"You don't need to know." he said before he wiped his arm out and hit her hard on the side of the head with his gun. She was unconscious in seconds, leaning against the window like she was simply sleeping.

~0~0~0~0~

A couple of hours had passed since the phone call. Mac was walking along the corridor with Russ. Both men were silent, had been with each other since the call. Mac wanted to say something to Russ but he just knew Russ was thinking about that Ged had said on the phone. They walked into Mac's office still in total silence. Mac moved to behind his desk. He had made a call for Lucy to be put somewhere safe but he wanted to check that it was already being carried out.

"Mac…" Russ began.

"Jo and I haven't slept together." Mac quickly said, knowing it was want Russ wanted to hear.

Russ looked at him and Mac could see the relieved look on his face. "When Jo told me she was moving here I was gutted. I think that deep down I thought Jo and I may get back together. I call what we have a separation and she calls it a divorce, I guess that right there should have told me something. Truth is I wanted to keep fighting for her. Jo has this amazing ability to make you fall completely and madly in love with her without her even doing anything." Russ said before he collapsed into the chairs, thinking about Jo. "I knew, the moment I saw her that I wanted to be with her. It took me a while to persuade her and then finally she said yes."

Mac just smiled, he could understand why Russ would want her in his life. Truth was he was happier since she had come to work at the lab,_ since she had come into his life_. "I think the thing that I like most about her is the fact that she can be wildly sexy and yet totally adorable all at the same time. She has a smile that makes you want to fall down on your knees and worship her. She has the kindest, purest heart out of anyone I've ever met." Mac said.

Russ just looked at him. "I've seen the way she looks at you, Mac…" Russ said, "I knew I had a reason to be jealous of you." he said with a smile.

Mac just laughed but then turned serious again and said, "I'd do anything to trade places with her right now."

Russ nodded and agreed, "Me too."

The room fell silent as both men thought about Jo, the woman who the both of them loved and no matter how hard they tried they couldn't deny that love.

The room suddenly got loud as Adam ran in with a tablet in his hands. "MAC! Mac, I managed to find the car they were in." he said as he showed both men the imagine on his tablet.

It was a picture of a blue sedan, in the passenger's seat sat a very beaten up looking Jo and driving was Ged, a smug look plastered on his face.

"I got the plate and I've already ran it through the system. We got a name, the car doesn't belong to Cullen it belongs to a MR Jack Vaughn." Adam said, out of breath because he had ran so fast from his lab to Mac's office.

"That's great, we'll go check out his address, see if it gives us another lead…" Mac said as he and Russ began to leave his office.

"No, Mac, Wait! There's more. Our vic's name is Farrah Vaughn. She's Jack's daughter. We found her through missing persons."

Mac looked at Russ, they both suddenly felt like something had just taken a turn here, and not a good one.

"I thought that seemed a little bit too easy." Mac said. "Ged knew we'd check the camera's, that's the only reason he told us he was at Lucy's school."

"Why? And why would Cullen be driving the fathers, of the woman he murdered, car?" Russ asked.

"I guess we're about to find out." Mac replied.

~0~0~0~0~

Mac and Russ had travelled in one car, Danny and Flack in another. They pulled up outside a huge townhouse. They all piled out of the cars as another car pulled up behind them. Two officers climbed out. They would be responsible for keeping the street outside clear whilst Mac and the others went inside.

Mac and the others walked up the steps to the front door. Mac knocked on the door only to have it swing open. They all pulled out their guns, including Mac. They all gave each other the same curious glance. Mac then signalled to them to move in quietly and they all stepped silently inside.

The house was a mess, a dusty mess. Dust that clung to their lungs making them all want to cough it back up but they stayed silent. Mac turned and signalled to Danny and Flack to search downstairs while he and Russ went to check upstairs.

The stairs creaked beneath them but they continued up them. They spilt up and checked the floor before they both came back together, _nothing._ Mac pointed to the next flight of stairs and they both made their way up them. They spilt up once more. Mac checked off rooms until he came into a large bedroom, he glanced around it and saw that the bed looked like it had been recently used. He turned and saw a large metal door. He walked over to it and pushed against it in an attempt to open it. It didn't budge. He then noticed a button and pressed it.

He jumped back and readied his gun as the large door slid loudly open. His heart was pounding in his chest. He quickly hit another button and the room flickered to light. He immediately saw the mattress. With his gun ready he ducked into the room. _Empty, no one was in there_. He looked around and saw clothes scattered on the floor, blood stained clothes as well as blood stained rags and the mattress. _There was blood on that too._

He swung his gun back up when he heard a noise behind him. He spun round fast, holding the gun out in front of him.

"Whoa, Mac! It's just us." Danny said.

Mac looked at him, Flack and Russ and lowered his weapon. "I think this is where he was keeping Jo. We'll have to test the blood to be sure it's hers."

Danny saw the clothes and said, "That's what Jo was wearing the night of the explosion."

Mac felt his heart sink. "There's a lot of blood on the clothes." he thought out loud.

"She must have been badly hurt in the explosion…or since." Flack said.

Russ couldn't look at it anymore. He turned and walked away from the room. They all jumped at the sound of a clatter. They turned to see the bedside table, that Russ had kicked over, lying tipped over in the middle of the room.

"We need a team here. We have to analyse this scene." Mac said.

Danny and Flack looked at each other and turned to face Mac at the same time.

"What is it?" Mac asked them, knowing something was going on.

"We need to analyse the basement too." Danny said.

"Why, what did you find down there?" he asked.

"Mr and Mrs Vaughn." Flack told him.

~0~0~0~0~

Jo had woken up to find herself surrounded by trees. The car moved so fast and her head spun so much that she was unable to try to work out where she could possibly be. Her best guess was simply somewhere in the Catskills.

"Wakey, wakey, sleeping beauty." Ged said to her, grabbing her inner thigh.

She knocked his hand away, unable to not show how repulsed his touch made her feel. She continued looking out the window as the car turned, moving deeper and deeper into the forest. After a few more minutes they turned up a track. There was a sign stating it was a private road but Ged carried on anyway.

She wanted to know where she was but she refused to ask him. She tried to stare out into the dark; night time seemed to have fallen quickly over them. _How long had she been out?_ She was sure she could just about make out a log cabin and after a bend in the track she was faced with just that. The cabin had the potential to be a stunning little vacation home but as a shiver shot down Jo's spine she guessed it was far from that.

She heard Ged get out of the car. She didn't bother to watch him, but she suddenly wished she had so she could have been more prepared when he pulled her door open and reached in and ripped her from the car by her hair. A yelp of pain escaped her lips too quick for her to try to control.

Ged slammed her back against the car, his hand still tangled painfully in her hair. "Scream as loud as you want, no one's gonna hear you out here, Alabama."

Jo just glared at him, _fan-fucking-tastic_ she thought to herself.

He pulled her away from the car and pushed her towards the cabin that stood in darkness in the middle of God only knew where.

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading. Hope you liked. **

**Please review and stayed tuned for Mac action.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing. You wanted Mac action, here it is.**

**Disclaimer: Nope not mine.**

**Chapter 8**

The team was spread out through the house, analysing the entire place. Danny was in the basement with Mac, Flack and Adam. The parents of Farrah Vaughn had been found in a freezer in the basement. It meant their bodies were perfectly preserved and so the cause of death was evident. Two neat bullet holes stared up at Mac from the foreheads of Mr and Mrs Vaughn, like two third eyes.

It made Mac angry to see the bodies squashed up in the freezer, put into storage like old meat. It made his hatred for Ged stronger. Mac knew it was going to be difficult to get them out of the freezer and he decided he wasn't in the right mood to be there when that happened. This whole case made him more and more angry by the second. He wasn't sure how much more he could take before he could no longer keep his temper under control.

He headed upstairs and caught up with Lindsay and Hawkes who were processing the main bedroom. Hawkes was in there whereas Lindsay was paying most attention to the panic room. It made her uneasy being in it but, as usual, she stayed professional and got on with her job.

She picked up a blood stained rag and studied it for a moment. Dozens of ideas of how it could have become blood stained ran through her head, all of them involved Jo having been injured, thanks to Ged. She looked up when she saw Mac looking around the small room.

"This is the sixth rag I've bagged. I'm gonna take a guess and say the blood _all_ belongs to Jo. This room would have been the perfect holding cell for Ged to keep her in."

Mac just nodded, she was right. He saw a bloodied handprint of the wall and walked over to it. He knew just looking at it that it was Jo's hand print. _He loved her hands, they were so delicate and the touch that came from them was always so caring_. He wanted to put his own hand against the print, try to send some sort of message to Jo that he was thinking of her, but he knew better; it was evidence.

He turned to see Lindsay looking at him, a sad smile on her face. "I hope she's punched him so hard in the face." she suddenly said.

Mac laughed, "Knowing Jo she has. In one way I hope she hasn't, it would be in her best interest _not _to piss him off but…"

"Jo will give as good as she gets." Lindsay said for him.

"I'll let you carry on. I'll catch up with you later." Mac said and walked out.

Lindsay nodded and shuffled over to the mattress and noticed the blood smears on that, she thought that maybe she noticed something else as well on the grubby mattress. She reached into her kit and pulled out a UV light. She put on some goggles and shone the light over the mattress, her fears were suddenly confirmed.

She put the light away and began taking swabs of the stains.

~0~0~0~0~

Ged pulled up at a gas station and filled up the red truck he was now in. He had dumped the sedan in the woods and lit the sucker up. He'd stood watching for a while before he'd left it. He'd found the keys to the truck in the kitchen cupboard, where they were always kept, and had left the cabin. _Jo wouldn't be going anywhere while he was gone._

He walked in to pay and walked around the snacks section. He grabbed some snacks and shoved some more in his pockets. He walked over to the counter and placed the snacks in his hand down. The guy behind the counter was too busy watching the game on a small TV to pay much attention to him.

"Gas too." Ged said. "Give me two packs of Marlboro."

The guy did, all without taking his eyes away from the TV. Ged glanced at the TV and saw the news reel that ran across the bottom of the screen. _"CSI's have discovered two more bodies in the Cullen case. They are thought to be the parents of a previous female murder victim found."_ He chuckled and slapped some money down on the counter. The guy shoved it into the till and sat down and began watching the game again.

Ged made his way out, stuffing some more snacks in his pocket as he did, the guy behind the counter was too enthralled in the game to notice.

Ged climbed in the truck and threw all the snacks onto the seat next to him. He lit up a cigarette and pulled out, heading out of the mountains and back towards the city. _He had someone to see._

~0~0~0~0~

Lindsay was sat at her desk, leaning back in her chair as she stared over at Jo's empty desk. It had been cleared out some day before Jo's funeral had taken place. She hadn't been around or else she would have insisted it had been left as it was, after all no one else had filled Jo's position at the lab yet. _No one could._

She sighed heavily as she continued looking over at the sparkly clean desk. _It was so damn organised, too organised. It was like Jo had never been there._ She pushed herself up in a hurry, sending her chair soaring across the room. She gathered whatever useless paper she could find and scooped it up into her arms. She walked round to Jo's desk and dumped it all down and spread it out in a very unorganised manner. She grabbed some pens and pencils from the container off her own desk and dumped them on there too. Then she walked round to her desk drawers and pulled out a couple of packs of post-its. She began peeling various colours off and sticking them around the computer screen, again in an unorganised manner.

She stepped back once the desk looked like a bombsite again, _but there was something missing. _She leant over the desk and grabbed one of the pictures from off her own. It was a group shot of them all. She placed it gently down on the desk and smiled. "Perfect." she muttered to herself.

"Not quite." Mac said as he walked in and placed his empty cup of tea down. "Now it's perfect." He said, having been watching her and so understanding what she was doing

Lindsay laughed but Mac could see the tears she was forcing back. "I never thought I'd miss this. Stella always kept it so organised and then Jo was the _total_ opposite, but the truth is it's been bugging the hell outta me since it was cleared."

Mac smiled, he liked that it looked like Jo's space again, but he found that he suddenly had a dull aching in his chest. He looked around, expecting Jo to come prancing down the corridor with her huge beaming smile. She didn't…and the corridor remained empty, silent.

"I finished testing the samples I collected from out of the panic room." Lindsay suddenly said, bringing Mac out of his thoughts.

"The blood?" he asked her as she sat down behind her desk.

"It was Jo's. We all got pretty bad burns and cuts from the explosion, I can only imagine Jo did too. I also matched the finger prints in the hand print on the wall to hers. " she said trying to explain all the blood.

Mac nodded. "Anything else?" he asked.

Lindsay looked up at him, hesitant to say what she had to say next, it was the thing that had brought her to her office, _needing a minute or so to clear her head_. Finally the words began to come out, "I collected a semen sample from off the mattress in the room. There was also a blood stain containing vaginal epithelial cells. The semen came back a match to Ged Cullen's DNA. The blood and the epithelia's came back a match to Jo." she said sadly. "He raped her in that room." she clarified, _not that she needed to._

Mac wanted to say something, anything, but he feared if he opened his mouth he would actually throw up. A moment of silence passed before Lindsay decided to give him some space. "I'm gonna go check on what Adam's doing." she said, using any excuse to get out of there.

She left Mac standing there but the moment he was gone he leant on Jo's desk, suddenly feeling very unsteady. After talking a moment to force the feeling of queasiness back down he glanced up at the photo Lindsay had put on the desk. In it, he was stood next to Jo. Her arms were wrapped around his neck, his around her waist, their faces so close they touched. Her smile was so warm and big, _he doubted that smile would exist in her anymore._

~0~0~0~0~

Jo was tied to a chair in the basement of the cabin. The rope Ged had used was sharp and cut into her flesh. In her mouth was a gag that tasted as dusty as it smelt. It took everything she had in her not to throw up just from the taste it left in her mouth.

She had tried getting free from the ropes and it had done her no good, just caused nasty rope burns around her wrists. She could feel the blood oozing from them, dripping down her hands and off her finger tips onto the floor.

She sat there now, rather calmly so and could do nothing but think about what she had been through, a thought that had her suddenly struggling to hold back tears.

~0~0~0~0~

Mac had decided he wanted to come back to the house, the crime scene, _alone_. It had finished being processed but was still a closed scene for now. He had told the officer parked out front that he was just coming to check some things over and they hadn't bothered to argue with him.

Of course once inside the dark house he had travelled straight upstairs. The only light that poured in was from a few street lights outside and the moon which shone brightly in the starry night sky.

Seeing a starry night sky could sometimes prove to be a rare thing in New York, but he knew how much Jo loved them. He remembered back to a time not so long ago _when he had found her up on the balcony in the lab, staring out at a beautiful starry night._

_He walked over to her and leant against the railing with her. "See something you like?" he asked her. _

_Jo smiled at him and said, "The stars. I always see them and wish that I could just reach on up there and pluck one of them right out of the Heavens."_

_To Mac, that seemed like something a child would say but Jo could get away with it too. God it made him feel for her even more so. "They are particularly bright tonight." he said._

"_Back home, when I was a kid, I used to sneak out of my bedroom window at night and lay out on the porch roof looking up at the stars, trying to count them all."_

"_How far did you get?" Mac asked with a smile._

_Jo just smiled sheepishly at him, "Dunno, I always fell asleep." she confessed. "My Momma used to scream and shout at me when she would find me out there the next morning. She used to think I'd get kidnapped or something…but I told her, so long as those stars are up there I'm safe. They'd look after me, they'd protect me, and not let any harm come to me…and they have." she told him._

_Mac shuffled closer to her and she laid her head down on his shoulder. He only hesitated for a second before he rested his head against hers and they continued watching the stars together._

He tried to push the memory aside as he stepped silently through the bedroom until he came to the panic room. The door was still opened and he hesitated in the dark before he turned on his Maglite and shone it into the room. He could see a small blood smear on the wall, _blood that had proved to be Jo's. _An image of Ged hitting her, sending her crashing into the wall flashed before his eyes.

He turned away from it and tried to blink away the images but he found he was looking right at the mattress and different images flashed through his mind. Images of Jo pinned beneath Ged and he violated her. He could hear her begging him to stop, her cries of pain, Ged's menacing voice…it was all so clear, all of it, _especially Ged's voice…._

Mac suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, followed by someone's hot breath against the back of his neck.

He turned and tried to swing his arm out at the shadowy figure behind him but they were quick and he felt something hard crash into his side. He fell to the floor, his Maglite rolling out of his hand and across the floor. The pain in his ribs was excruciating, they had to be broken.

He tried to push himself up but a heavy boot slammed into his side. He toppled over before landing on his side. Another blow came, this one to his stomach, knocking the wind right out of him. He tried to move but his attacker kicked him again. This was what happened every time he tried to move. Eventually all he could do was lay there on his back, looking up through the darkness.

"You gotta have more in you than that, Mac. I mean, Alabama puts up a better fight than you do."

"Ged Cullen…" Mac said knowingly, recognising the voice.

"It's Gamekeeper to you!" Ged spat at him as he delivered another hard blow to his side.

It was a moment before he could push the pain down enough to ask, "Where's Jo?" He was out of breath from the pain he felt.

"She's certainly not here." Ged said. "Plus, let's face it, where would be the fun in me telling you where she is now? You and your team are doing so well so far."

"What did you do to her?" Mac growled angrily at him.

Ged laughed and then with a smirk said, "She was unbelievable, Mac! I took her right there in that room, I couldn't resist. I just had to have a piece of her!" he said, sounding so proud of himself, "I'm sure you know what I mean. Maybe one day you'll have the balls to take what you want from her, just like I did."

"I would never do what you did to her!" Mac snapped.

"Because you're not man enough to do it, Mac! God, you have no idea what you're missing out on!" he yelled. "She was perfect..." he said, becoming hard just at the thought of what he had done to her, "Every single inch of her." he added.

Mac couldn't stand to hear anymore. He threw himself up and crashed into Ged sending them both crashing to the floor. It was dark and his head was spinning with pain. He could barely see what he was doing but he swung his fist and felt its painful connection with Ged's jaw.

Ged roared in pain and threw his own punch. Mac fell back off him and Ged jumped to his feet. Mac tried to jump up but he felt something come crashing down against the back of his head. _Wood_, he knew from the sound it made as the pieces it had smashed into hit the floor. He slumped to the ground, the feel of warm blood trickled down behind his ears and down his neck. His head felt like it might actually explode.

He tried to push himself up and follow the sounds of Ged's footsteps as he ran out of the room and away from him, but it was no good and he crashed back down to the floor. He felt like the room was spinning. "Help!" he called out, his voice weak. _Nothing._ "Officer down!" he muttered.

He reached into his pocket and tried to find his cell phone but it was gone. He realised it must have fallen from his pocket in the scuffle. He tried to drag himself across the floor, searching for his phone in the dark, but it became harder and harder to do so.

~0~0~

Mac didn't remember passing out but he was sure he must have, when he opened his eyes he felt nowhere near as dizzy, and as he felt his neck he realised the blood there had already began to dry. He pushed himself up, much easier this time, and headed towards the stairs, holding on for dear life as he stumbled his way down them.

He stepped out of the house, the cold night air nipping at his skin. He stumbled towards the police car that was sat right out front of the house. He walked straight up to it and ripped the door open, ready to yell at the officers. _He'd nearly been killed whilst they sat listening to the radio._

However, the second the door opened one of the officers tumbled out, the dead weight of his body knocking Mac to the floor. _Shocked_, he looked into the car. The windows were spattered with blood and as he looked at the other officer he noticed that half his head now lay on the back seat.

"Son-of-a-bitch…" he muttered knowing it was Ged who was responsible for this.

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading. Please review. There's more Mac action to come in later chapters.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine**

**Chapter 9**

Mac watched from the back of an ambulance as Flack drove up. He got out of his car and almost ran over to the ambulance, glancing into the police car as he passed by it. "Mac, what the hell happened? You okay?" he asked.

The paramedic finished stitching up the gash on Mac's head and left the two men alone.

"Cullen was here." Mac told Flack.

Flack stepped right up to the ambulance. "Did he have Jo with him?" he asked.

"No. He wouldn't tell me where she was either."

"What did he say then, I mean, do you really think he came back here just to beat the crap outta you?" Flack said.

"I don't know. I think he followed me here though." Mac said

"But why? Did he leave you another clue or…what?"

Mac just shook his head and rubbed his aching neck. "I have no idea." he said as he watched the first of the two young officers who had lost their lives to Ged Cullen get loaded into the back of the corners van.

~0~0~0~0~

Jo was sat in the chair in the basement still. Her back was badly aching from being sat in the same position in the hard wooden chair for hours on end. She was also desperate to pee to point where it felt painful. Her stomach was also filled with hunger pains, she couldn't remember the last time she had actually ate a full or even decent meal.

She wasn't sure how many hours had gone by she'd been trying to keep track but at one point had practically forced herself to sleep to try to get away from the pain she was in. She had no idea how long she'd actually been asleep but it had done nothing to help her.

Her face was aching, everything was aching and she was finding it harder and harder to not cry at her situation. It was all so hopeless. She wanted to be back with her children, or with Mac, just anywhere but here.

She couldn't help but wonder if she would ever see her children or Mac and the team again. She wanted to, badly wanted to. She wanted to be able to hold her children one last time and tell them how much she loved them. She wanted to thank the team for becoming a group of the best friends she had ever had. She wanted to thank Mac for everything he'd done for her since she came to work at the lab. She wanted to finish what had started one night late at the lab…

_It had gone midnight and with Ellie staying over at a friend's Jo was in no rush to go home. She was trying to solve this case. She didn't want to see another body turn up. She sighed and leant back in_ _her chair, as she did so she was sure she heard music playing. She pushed herself up and walked through the silent lab. There was only ever a few people still here at this time and it was just a few lab techs, and usually Mac. She followed the music all the way to Mac's office. _

_She knocked and stepped in, he was sat on the comfy chairs in his office, his head titled back, and clearly he was asleep._

_She smiled and grabbed his jacket from where it was hanging up. It was cold in the lab tonight so she laid it over him in hope that it would keep him warm. She walked over to the small stereo he kept in his office and turned the music down._

"_I was listening to that." Mac said from behind her. _

_She turned to face him and smiled to see he still hadn't opened his eyes. "Mac Taylor you look as exhausted as I feel. You need to be in bed." she told him._

"_Is that some kind of an offer." he joked._

_Jo just laughed and went and sat by him, letting the comfy chairs envelope her body, God they really were comfy. She could understand how Mac could so easily fall asleep in them. She found sleep calling out to her. She smiled when Mac placed his hand on her knee, she quickly covered it with her own hand. _

"_You should go home too if you're tired." Mac said._

"_Please, my bed is nowhere near as comfy as these chairs." she said as she closed her own eyes. _

"_Mine is." he told her._

"_That some kind of an offer." she joked back. _

_Mac finally opened his eyes and turned to look at her. She opened hers knowing he was looking at her. He was smiling, at what she wasn't sure, so she asked, "What?"_

_Mac shrugged and said, "Nothing." _

_They sat there with their heads resting on the back of the chairs as they looked at each other, just looking into one and others eyes, becoming lost. Before they even realised what they were doing their faces moved closer and closer. Their lips touched, barely, but Jo already knew she wanted more from it and as Mac placed his hand on her leg and turned to his body till it was facing hers, she knew he did too. _

_They were both about to deepen the kiss when the shrill ring of Mac's desk phone rang. She was gutted when he pushed himself up and answered the phone. She reached up and touched her lips, she could still feel his lips against hers and she longed for more of it. She looked up when Mac hung up and turned to face her, a sad look on his face. "We have another body." he told her._

Jo could still feel what it was like to have Mac's lips against hers. She would give anything to be able to kiss him again. Suddenly all thoughts like that were pushed aside as she heard footsteps above her and realised Ged was back. She felt her heart begin to pound against her chest. She heard a door open and could then only watch as he walked down the stairs and into the basement.

He walked right over to her, a bag in one hand and a knife in the other. Panic flooded over her and although she tried to hide it her breathing became fast, her panic evident and this was something Ged noticed. He dropped the bag down and walked right over to her. He grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her forward.

He reached down behind her and began cutting at the rope. The moment her wrists were free she brought them round to her front. She cradled her right hand which seemed to be most injured. Ged cut the rope around her ankles and took a step away from her.

He picked the bag up and threw it at her. "Eat, but make it last, it's all you're getting." he told her.

"I need to use the bathroom." she said.

"I saw Mac tonight." he told her, ignoring what she had said.

She could only look at him. "Why?" she asked.

Ged just smirked at her. Panic hit her like a brick wall. "What the hell did you do to him?" she yelled as she bolted towards him.

Ged found it funny and laughed right in her face. "Down, bitch." he said as he shoved her back. "He's not dead. Nah, I want him alive. I want him to think about what I told him." he smirked.

"Which was?" she asked.

"That I got to fuck you and he hasn't." Ged spat at her.

Jo felt her stomach flip and she had to back away from him holding her hand over her mouth because she was sure she was going to throw up. She walked over to the wall and put one hand on it, needing to use it for support. After a minute she turned to face him. "You son-of-a-bitch!" she spat.

Again, Ged found it funny. "Don't be like that, Alabama. He has a right to know." he said, laughing.

She wanted to scream at him, wanted to run over and punch him as hard as she could. She felt so…pathetic… She took a deep breath and asked, "Can I use the bathroom?"

~0~0~

Ged had allowed her to use the bathroom. He marched her right to it and all but kicked her into it before slamming the door shut on her. "You have five minutes!" he yelled to her.

Jo ran over to the toilet and had what felt like the world's best pee ever. She stood up and walked over to the sink and washed her hands. She looked at her reflection in the mirror. She looked a complete state, _a bruised and beaten state._ She then noticed something else staring at her in the mirror, right behind her…a window.

She spun around and raced over to it. It was big enough for her to get through. She climbed up onto the bath tub and pushed the window open. She froze when it screeched loudly, like a cat being strangled. She almost jumped out of her skin when she heard a slam against the door. "What the hell are you doing in there?"

Jo pulled herself up through the window, moving faster than she could ever remember moving. Ignoring all the pain her body felt. She fell from the window and crashed to the ground below. She screamed in agony as the stiches on her side burst open. She tried to ignore the pain and looked up and saw Ged looking through the window. Without hesitation he began to pull himself through it, his bigger frame struggling to get through.

Jo wasted no time in pushing herself to her feet and making a dash into the trees. She hardly felt like she had moved away from the house before she heard him running after her. It may have been in her head but he sounded like he was running a hell of a lot faster than she was. She tried willing herself to run faster but if anything she felt like she was actually slowing down.

"I see you, Alabama!" she heard from behind her.

She ignored his taunting and tried to move faster. She jumped over a fallen branch but landed with a twisting pain in her ankle. She hit the floor and almost ended up with a mouthful of dead leaves. The pain in her ankle was blinding. She could just about make out through the dark the hole in the ground that she must have landed in.

She tried to stand up but the moment she put her weight on her ankle it gave out. She figured crawling would be better than just lying there, but she'd barely moved when Ged came crashing down on top of her.

She cried out, a pitiful attempt to get someone's, anyone's, attention. "Help me!"

Her reply was a heavy fist in her face. The pain was excruciating and she couldn't hold her tears back. "Get off me!" she screamed, frustrated, at Ged.

Again his response was to punch her in the face. "If you wanted to hang out in the woods you should have just said. I know the perfect place! First I need you to do something for me." he said, standing up, as he did so he ripped her up from the ground with him.

~0~0~0~0~

Mac was walking through the lab when Lindsay came running up to him, calling out his name. "Mac!"

"Lindsay, what is it?" he asked.

"Farrah Vaughn was not the Vaughn's only child, they also had a son. They adopted him when he was just two years old." she told him, having been researching all night and into the early hours of morning which it now was.

"Where are you going with this?" he asked, a little impatiently.

"The son was called Gerard. Mac, they adopted Ged! He changed his name back to Cullen, his biological parent's name."

Mac just looked at her as her words registered in his heads. "We need to find out who his biological parents are." he said.

"Flack's working on it as we speak." she told him.

"Tell me the second you find out." Mac said before he turned and continued walking to his office.

He walked into his office and stepped behind his desk. He had just sat down when he heard, _"You have mail!"_ He looked up at his computer screen and opened up the message. Immediately a small black box popped up on his screen, in the middle of it was a play button. He clicked on the play button and the box came to life.

His heart sank as he watched it. He put his hands up over his face as it finished. Tears of anger and frustration threated to spill from his eyes, but it was a different emotion that made him force them back under control. He stood up from his desk and went to gather his team who were all still working around the clock.

~0~0~

It took him less than ten minutes to gather them all and Russ and set up the video link again. He stood back as the others all watched.

"_Hey team!"_ Ged said, _"Got someone who wants to talk to you."_ he told them before he ducked out of sight.

They watched what Mac had already seen. Hidden behind Ged, at the back of the room, was Jo. The camera zoomed closer to her and then came to a stop. They could all see how beaten up she looked and it made them all angry to see. Still she tried to smile, wincing at the pain it caused her bust lip and bruised face.

"_Hi guys."_ she said, her voice quiet, weak, without the same sparkle it usually had_, "I'm supposed to tell you about the next place you all have to look. First, I just want to thank you all for being the best friends I ever had. And Russ, if you're listening then please take care of my babies. Tell them that I love them and will never stop loving them. Mac…thank you."_ she said.

"_Get on with it, bitch!"_ They heard Ged growl at her.

"_To find your next clue you have to come out here to the Catskills. You'll find a burnt out blue sedan. You need to be looking five miles from there."_ Ged came up behind her and put a knife to her throat.

The team all panicked. It was something they couldn't hide. Flack turned to look at Mac, surely he wasn't going to let them watch Jo be killed without warning them. They were all sure Ged was going to kill Jo right there and then but he simply held the knife at her throat. _"Don't give them too much, Alabama. Make them work for it." _he said as he looked into the camera with her.

Mac's eyes met Ged's again, he knew that was his intent. He and the others watched in disgust as Ged snaked his tongue up the side of Jo's face. They could all see her disgust and they felt it for her.

The screen went black for a second before it came back to life with a new image. This time it scanned the ground. It was a patch of forestry, nothing stood out in particular about it except for a small mound of earth and a pipe sticking up from the ground. The camera was turned until Ged's face came into view. "If you wanna find her you'll have to be quick, the pipe gets plugged in 12 hours. Good luck!" Ged said before the video ended.

The team all stood there, frozen.

"We have to find the sedan Jo was on about. There's a clue there will tell us where she is." he told them.

"And if we don't find it in time…" Lindsay said, tears in her eyes.

"Then Jo's dead." Adam said sadly.

"That's why not finding that sedan is option." Mac said firmly.

~0~0~0~0~

Jo opened her eyes, or at least she thought she had, she tried again only to find they were in fact open. She figured the lights were out wherever Ged was keeping her now. She tried to sit up and instantly regretted it as she cracked her head against something hard. It was already spinning from Ged having hit her with something after making her record the video. She couldn't remember anything since then.

She muttered a curse and tried to lift her hand to her head to assess the damage she had just caused but her knuckles scrapped against something hard and rough, something sharp enough to leave lingering stinging pain.

"What the hell..?" she muttered. She brought her hand up to her face, keeping it right against her body as she did so. She then put her hands up, palms facing upwards, slowly. At the same time they hit something, the same scratchy thing that had cut her knuckles and gashed her head on.

She was trying not to worry but she could feel her heart betraying her, it was beating fast, pounding against her chest. She slowly brought her arms back down to her side, it was then her right hand felt something, something cold and hard. She grabbed it and felt the familiarity of the object in her hand. She brought it up to lie on her stomach and used her other hand to twist the top slightly. The Maglite shone bright, temporarily blinding her.

She placed her fingers over the light slightly to dull it. As soon as she did she looked around where she had woken up. "Oh my God!" she cried out as she scanned the wood around her. She closed her eyes as tears snuck up on her and fell too quickly for her to try to stop. She sobbed for a few seconds before she forced her eyes open again. She was in a box and the smell or cold wet earth suddenly hit her. She dropped the light and pounded her fists against the wood above her. "Help me!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, "Please help me!"

**TBC**

**So Jo has been buried alive too. Let's hope the team can find the Sedan in time, then work out in which direction to travel the five miles. **

**Thanks for reading. Please, please review and let me know what you think.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks to everyone for reading and to those who reviewed. It's great to hear what you all think. **

**Disclaimer: Not mine if you've seen them on CSI: NY. **

**Chapter 10**

Jo had simply lay there in silence for what felt like an eternity. She refused to allow herself to open her eyes, to face the reality of her bleak situation. Realising she _had to_ she forced her eyes open. Seeing the wood around her brought stinging tears to her eyes. She coughed, cleared her throat and forced the tears back. "Stay calm, Jo." she told herself out loud. Hearing her own voice was better than the deafening silence around her.

This is what she knew: she was in a world of pain, everything ached and throbbed, her head in particular. She also knew that she had been buried alive, the smell of earth was too strong around her to think otherwise. The cold dampness off it seeped into the box, sending a chill right down her spine.

She looked over the box she was in again, making a mental note of its dimensions. She used that to calculate how much air was in the box, used that to work out how long she had in it. A couple of hours, it was something that brought tears back to her eyes, she couldn't stop them.

She reached up and hid her face behind her hand and just let her tears fall, even though she knew being worked up like this would only use up her limited oxygen quicker. She suddenly noticed the slight breeze on her arm. She looked up to see what could possibly be responsible and noticed something, so she shone the torch up at it. _It was some sort of pipe._

She shuffled across slightly_, all she could do_, and looked straight up the pipe, shining the torch up it. She could make nothing out but she could feel the cold fresh air blowing down it. She let her calculations of _air-time_ go right out of her head. At least she wouldn't suffocate, but she did suddenly become aware of how thirsty she was.

~0~0~0~0~

The team where spread out over the forest. Choppers had headed out before them and had located the Sedan, after what had seemed like forever. They had split up into teams, lots of them, all heading out five miles from the site of the burnt out Sedan. Only Hawkes remained with it, trying to gather any evidence he could possibly get from it or around it.

Flack's voice suddenly came over Mac's radio, "Have you found it?" Mac asked him.

"No, but I just got a call from the chopper pilot. They've spotted a small wooden cabin less than twenty miles from where they spotted the Sedan. They're trying to find out who it belongs to now." Flack replied.

"Okay, keep me posted." Mac said to him and returned his radio to his belt.

Lindsay was walking beside Mac. Just like him she was scanning every inch of the forest floor. She was so busy looking ahead that she didn't see the pile of leaves blocking her next step. The toe of her shoe hit something and sent her crashing to the ground.

Mac was quickly knelt beside her, checking she was okay. "I'm fine," she told him, "My foot got caught on something…" she said, before both of them suddenly saw what it was, _a pipe._

"This is about five miles from the Sedan!" Mac rejoiced as he crawled over to the pipe and began using his hands to dig through the mud. "Jo we're here! We're gonna get you out. Hold on!" he yelled.

Lindsay grabbed her radio and yelled into it, "We have her, we found Jo! We need back-up to help get her out!"

Mac heard her give their location as he continued clawing his way through the cold ground, the mud getting harder to dig through as he made a small dent in the patch they would have to dig out. Lindsay was suddenly there helping him. "We're gonna get you out, Jo!" she called out as she dragged dirt away with her hands, but something suddenly caught her attention, _another pipe,_ just a few feet away from them. She stopped digging as she studied it.

"Lindsay!" Mac yelled at her desperately wanting her to continue. "We're coming, Jo!"

She looked down at the pipe near them and noticed it had been plugged with some sort of black rubber cork. She rubbed her thumb over it, the plug was stuck tight. She glanced over at the other pipe and saw it too had been plugged, "Mac, look!" she said as she pointed out the other pipe to him.

Mac saw it then looked at the one near him, he too noticing the plug in it. Twelve hours was nowhere near up. Ged wasn't plugging the pipe yet. Mac fell back off his knees. "This isn't Jo. He said we would have to find 6 victims before we would find her…"

Lindsay nodded and said, "Farrah Vaughn and her unborn child were the first two, then her parents, and now another two. Mac, he was telling us where the next bodies are, not Jo."

Mac scanned the forest around them, "We're not going to have enough time to find her!" he suddenly realised as the others all began to join them.

~0~0~0~0~

It had again taken what felt like forever for the two wooden, homemade coffins to be fully dug up. The stench of rotting flesh had poured out of the cracks between the wooden boards. They had cracked the coffins open right there in the forest, under as control conditions as possible.

The smell of death was always hard to swallow, but at this rate of decomp it was one hundred times harder. They all watched as Sid who had also joined them searched through their DB's clothes, looking for anything that may help identify them. It was clear one of the bodies was male, the other female.

Sid pulled a wallet out of the male victim's pocket and passed it to Flack. He began looking through it with Mac. He came across the very thing they were looking for, "I got his driver's licence…What the..?" Flack said, sounding as confused as he looked.

"Flack, what is it?" Danny asked.

"Our vic's name is Brian Cullen."

"This is Maura Cullen." Lindsay told them, having gone through the wallet Sid had passed her from out of the female DB's pocket.

"The name can't just be a coincidence," Mac said, "I think that Ged wanted us to find his adoptive parents and then he led us to his biological ones."

~0~0~0~0~

Jo had tried just closing her eyes and imaging she was somewhere else, it helped keep her calm…_slightly._ She kept turning the Maglite off, trying to preserve the batteries as best she could. As she closed her eyes again she saw images of the hell she'd been though to get here. She didn't remember being put in the coffin, nor did she remember the dirt being thrown over her.

What she did remember haunted her just as badly. _Ged had marched her through the forest, making her walk just a couple of steps ahead of him, the whole time he'd had a gun pointed at her back. They seemed to have been walking for hours when he finally told her to stop. _

_She did as he instructed and glanced over her shoulder at him. Her hands were tied together in front of her, the rope scratching her already wounded flesh. He had with him a shovel. He held that in one hand and the small hand gun in the other, still keeping it pointed at Jo. _

_He flicked the gun to the left, indicating that she had to move to the left. She did as he told her, stepping into a tight circle of young looking trees and some dead looking tree. She brushed against one of them as something caught her eye. It was the hole in the ground, the contents of which sat in a heap beside it. _

_She hadn't realised she'd stopped dead in her tracks but the gun jabbing her in her back told her to get moving again. She took a few more steps forward and tried to look into the hole but suddenly she was on her stomach, eating dirt. She groaned in pain as her head spun, throbbing with pain. _

_Ged nudged her over onto her back. She looked up at him, seeing two of him thanks to the bump on her head. She yelped in pain as he dropped down on top of her. She felt herself slipping into unconsciousness but not before she felt Ged tug her trousers down. She felt the sickening familiarity of him thrusting himself into her._

_She welcomed unconsciousness but it taunted her, beckoning her in and then blocking her out. It was forcing her to live through another rape, this one much more brutal than the last. It seemed to go on and on and unconsciousness drifted further away._

Eventually she had fallen into unconsciousness but it hadn't been soon enough and images of her second assault kept flashing through her mind, bringing stinging tears to her eyes.

She suddenly screamed as something wet and cold hit her face. She dropped the Maglite from her hands in her panic, she felt around, trying to find it and screamed again when her hand touched another thing that was cold and wet.

She continued trying to search for the Maglite and finally put her hand on it. She grabbed it and turned it on and shone it around the box. What she saw was something that she would have laughed at if the situation had been different, but as it was it just made her scream in frustration.

It was a worm, a big fat worm that wriggled around her coffin. She shone the torch around her tiny prison and cringed when she saw another big worm near her feet. She flinched when she felt another touch her face, it was like torture. She closed her eyes as tears formed in them, rebelliously leaking out from the corners of her eyes.

When she opened them and looked up she saw another worm inching its way in through the small gaps in her wooden coffin. "Get out!" she yelled at it, slamming the Maglite into it.

She looked up when she heard a familiar voice. It seemed to travel right down the pipe and echo around her prison, or maybe it was just echoing in her head. "I thought you might want some company down in there, Alabama!" Ged shouted to her.

She had no idea what he meant. If she had been able to see him she would have known just what he meant. He picked up the second bucket he had brought to the site and poured it out. Hundreds of worms landed on the ground, all squirming, quickly burrowing into the loose earth.

Ged couldn't help but laugh. "I hear they taste good too if you're feeling hungry."

Jo looked up and shone the torch up to see another worm trying to wiggle its way into her coffin. _This was the company he meant._

"Please, let me out!" she begged him, shouting into the pipe.

"No can do!" he yelled to her.

She closed her eyes and put her thumbs in her ears and held the rest of her hand over her face as she tried desperately not to sob her heart out. This was supposed to be a myth, being buried alive and being turned into worm food, but here she was, here were the worms, _and this really was happening to her._

~0~0~0~0~

The door of the cabin was slammed open so hard it bounced back off the wall, nearly hitting Flack as he ran in, followed by Mac and the rest of the team and dozens of armed officers. They were all shouting out, words that seemed to fall silent in Mac's ears. All he could think was _'what if Jo's here?' _He was praying she would be.

Everything around him seemed to be moving in slow motion. He watched the others race around checking every room, every closet, _everywhere_. All of them were coming up empty. He saw Flack open a door that led to a basement. "Down here!" he yelled.

Mac came unfrozen and ran over to the door, following Flack down the stairs. Here time seemed to return to normal. "Over there!" Lindsay said as she moved over to a dark stain on the floor.

Mac didn't need a closer look to know what it was but he moved over to it anyway. "Blood." he said.

"Hey, this is Jo's, she was wearing it in the video!" Flack said as he looked down at a jacket that was draped over a chair.

"Don't touch it. I'll get Adam to process it." Mac said, desperately hanging on to a hope they might find something from it, anything that would lead them to Jo.

"If Ged's not here then where the hell is he?" Lindsay asked.

"Hey guys!" Danny yelled as he ran down into the basement.

They all noticed how he momentarily froze when he saw the blood pool. He ripped his gaze away from it and walked over to where they had gathered and showed them the letter in his hands. "Found this upstairs." he said.

The others all read it but it was Mac who read the short letter out loud. _"Time is running out. How long will you continue looking for her? See you round, the Gamekeeper."_

"Until we find her!" Flack stated.

The others all looked at him, agreeing. Mac, however, couldn't help but think they were going to be too late.

~0~0~0~0~

Adam was in the cabin, he was using equipment that a chopper had brought out to them to analyse some of the evidence they had found at the scene. Hawkes had gone back to the crime lab via a chopper to analyse the blood they had found. He'd already determined the blood was Jo's, something they'd all been expecting.

He was also there to assist Sid with the autopsies. Both men had their phones on speaker so they could talk to one another whilst working.

Hawkes was telling Adam what they had discovered so far. "Both victims have no major injuries. We've looked for everything Adam, bullet holes, knifes wounds, you name it. We need a little more time but we're fairly certain both vic's died from the same thing Farrah Vaughn did."

"Asphyxiation," Adam said.

"Yes," Hawkes said. "So, what about you, you found anything we can use?"

"Not a lot, but I did find something on Jo's jacket. Some sort of insect. I've done some research and I sent some pictures back to the lab and it's been confirmed. The insect is called a Beech scale insect."

~0~0~

Adam had gathered the others to tell them what he had already told Hawkes. "The Beech scale insect, along with two types of fungi, is responsible for causing beech bark disease on beech trees. The insect attacks the tree leaving behind cankers in the bark which are then inhabited by the fungus. Trees affected by it more often than not die."

"What does this have to do with us finding Jo?" Mac asked impatiently.

"It could narrow down our search." Adam said.

"How?" Danny asked.

"Will you guys just let me finish!" Adam yelled, "When the beech tree dies because of this it is replaced by sugar maple trees. The insects I found on Jo's jacket where in the second stage. This is when they are known as crawlers. I managed to contact a biological organisation that is monitoring all beech disease outbreaks here in the Catskills. The sent me this map. It has all the locations of beech trees where this stage in the insect is most occurring. There are several major locations, but I managed to narrow it down…"

"How?" Danny asked.

"How doesn't matter!" Adam snapped. "It's still gonna take us hours to check the different locations but it has to be better than nothing. It has to help a little bit." he said sounding like he was trying to convince himself more than he was his colleagues.

"Great work Adam. Where's this map?" Mac said.

Adam passed him a tablet that was displaying the map. "I noticed something, maybe it was just wishful thinking but when I compared the locations of the Cullen's body, the Sedan and the Cullen's cabin they came together to create almost a rectangle. Just one corner was missing from it and that corner also happens to be one of the possible locations we need to search." Adam said, bringing up the map and the correlations on the tablet before turning it to show the others.

~0~0~0~0~

Jo could still hear Ged's menacing voice. _"Hold ya breath, Alabama."_ he told her just seconds before the cool breeze stopped. After that she no longer heard his voice. When she shone the Maglite up into the pipe she saw nothing, just blackness. She knew he'd somehow covered the pipe. She thought back to her earlier calculation.

She had two hours at most and that had begun decreasing half hour ago, or was it more. She began pounding her fists on the lid of the coffin, she screamed at the top of her lungs, begging for help from anyone who may be able to help her. _Little did she know no one was around to hear her cries._

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading. Please review.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Thanks to everyone reviewing. The guys are about to find Jo, but are they too late. **

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

**Chapter 11**

Mac and the teams were quickly making their way through the forest, to the location Adam had provided, and the place they hoped they would find Jo. Mac reached into his pocket and grabbed his cell phone as it began to ring.

"Taylor!" he said as he charged forward through the dead leaves and thick mud beneath his feet.

"Found her yet?" a familiar voice asked.

"Ged," Mac said, "we're on our way to her now. We know where she is." he said smirking, it was kind of true. The others all continued moving forward but they were all listening in to the call.

"I hope you're all running, Mac. Jo hasn't got much time left. I saw how close you guys were getting and I figured I'd move things ahead of schedule a little."

"What are you talking about?" Mac asked, panicked.

"I plugged the pipe almost two hours ago now. I'd say Jo's already feeling it, down in that little box. Although by now, perhaps she's feeling nothing at all."

"You son-uva-bitch!" Mac growled at him.

Ged just laughed, "You're spot on, Mac. My mother was a bitch!"

"Which one?" Mac spat at him as he took off in a run.

Again Ged laughed, but this time it was different, his laugh was stained with anger, "Both. My biological parents gave me up like I meant nothing!"

"Ok, I suppose I could pretend to understand your sick logic for killing them. What about you adoptive parents?" Mac said.

"They treated me like royalty at first because I was the only child they had. Neither could reproduce themselves." Ged told him coldly, "But, then by some fucked up miracle my _"mother"_ became pregnant. They forgot all about me because they only cared about their real child!"

"That's why you killed them?"

"They disowned me, said I was bad to have around the growing family!"

"So you paid them back by letting your sister and her unborn child die!"

"Not at first, I went looking for my biological parents, found them, but they didn't want to know me. They slammed the fucking door in my face!"

"My God, you're pathetic! You couldn't take a little rejection so you go on a murder spree!"

"Something like that." Ged growled back angrily.

"_Over here!" _Mac heard Adam shout.

Ged heard it too. "_Geez,_ Mac. I hope you weren't too late. We'll finish this conversation another time." he said before Mac hung upon him.

Mac raced through the trees, through the fading light, and over to where Danny, Lindsay, Adam and even Hawkes where digging through the dirt with shovels they had all been carrying. Mac wasted no time in dropping to his knees and trying to pull the plug out.

"Mac, we tried, it won't budge!" Adam told him as Flack ran over and began helping them dig.

Mac stood up and raked his fingers through his hair, "We need more man-power!" he bellowed to officers who were already making their way over to help.

He began digging as well, his heart thumping against his chest. Each time the blade of his shovel sliced into the damp earth a new memory of Jo flashed before his eyes, working all the way back to the first moment he had saw her...

_He'd stepped out of the elevator and had turned to see her standing up on the balcony. "I'm Jo Danville, I'm your new CSI…" she had said. Instantly he'd been puzzled by it but not by her, by her he'd been totally mesmerized. At that point he began to smile again. _

_Tons more images flooded through his head, some just as simple as her standing there smiling at him… another was when she had told him to get married…then when she had told him she adored him. He also saw the kiss they had shared…and then to when they were stood on the balcony looking up at the stars and she had told him about when she was child, how she loved the stars – her guardians as she saw them._

It seemed to take forever but finally they heard a 'clunk' as Danny's shovel hit something. "I think I got her!" he shouted.

"JO!" Lindsay shouted, "Jo, we're here!"

"Jo, hold on!" Hawkes shouted.

Mac got to his knees and brushed the dirt away with his hands. He banged his fist against the wooden box. "Jo, bang on the wood if you can hear me!" he yelled.

_Nothing. _

"Get me something to open this damn box with!" Mac yelled to no one in particular.

Flack climbed back into the hole with two shovels, passing one to Mac. Then as he pried the box open at one end Mac pried the other end open. The moment he could see her Mac felt his heart skip a beat, she was still, too still. "Jo!" he cried as he scooped her up and lifted her up to Danny and Adam who pulled her out of the hole. They carefully set her down on the floor and crouched down beside her.

Mac knelt down beside her and panic flooded him. With a shaky hand he placed two fingers on her neck.

"Mac?" Adam asked.

Sid knelt down on the other side of Jo, opposite Mac. "She's not breathing!" Mac panicked.

"Begin CPR!" Sid said and began compressions.

The others could only watch as the two men tried desperately to get her breathing. Mac looked down at Jo, tears stinging his eyes. Her eyes were closed and she just looked like she was sleeping. _God_ how he wished she was and that by saying her name enough it would wake her up. He leant back as Sid began compressions again. He reached down and gently held his palm against Jo's bruised and bloodied face.

"Open your eyes, Jo." he begged. He glanced up and saw all the stars twinkling brightly through the trees and immediately he flashed back to what she had said to him the night on the balcony at the lab. He looked back down at her and said, "Jo, open your eyes, look up at the stars. Remember what you said, when they're out no harm can come to you, that when they're out they'll protect you. Jo they're as clear as day. Just open your eyes and see them." he said,_ nothing,_ "Please Jo." he begged.

~0~0~0~0~

Ged walked through the busy train station with his hood pulled down over his face and a big rucksack hanging off his back. He did so without gaining any attention because he just looked like another tourist that wandered around the station. He made his way over to his train and stepped on board. Once on board he found a seat, reached into his bag and pulled out a newspaper. He unfolded it and held it up in front of his face. He had no intentions of reading it, just hiding behind it.

He couldn't wipe the smile off his face. Mac and his team were too busy wasting their time finding Jo and he was on his way out of New York City. _His work here was done and he had gotten away with it…for now…_

**TBC**

**I was gonna reveal Jo's fate in this chapter but I decided to wait. **

**Thanks for reading. Please review.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Thanks to those who reviewed, I really appreciate reviews, they make me happy. Sorry to everyone reading that this has taken so long to update.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

**Chapter 12 **

Looking up Jo could see how dark the sky was. Huge black clouds that were filled with rain loomed over, threatening to burst at any moment. It was cold, really cold, her whole body was shivering, her teeth chattered together.

Beyond the sound of her chattering teeth she could hear voices, muffled voices, like she was hearing them through glass. She looked up, straining her eyes, but she saw no one. She wanted to get up, sit up, just move somehow, but her body was like lead. She couldn't help but become more and more frustrated, _what was wrong with her body, why couldn't she move it?_

As the voices suddenly got quieter she saw faces appear above her. People were standing above her, looking down at her. She saw so many familiar faces, including her children's, and someone she had never met, an older, balding man in a long white gown, a priest's gown. _Where the hell was she?_

She was suddenly able to move her arms and immediately she lifted them up towards Mac but with a _clunk_ they hit something hard but seemingly invisible. It was only when Jo hit the thing again that she realised what it was…glass.

She turned her head to the side and saw walls of dirt around and when she looked up she seemed to have sunk down further. _What the hell was happening?_

"MAC!" she screamed, looking directly at him and although his eyes were fixed on hers he made no indication that he had heard her.

"MAC!" she screamed louder and began banging against the glass. "Flack! Sheldon!" she tried, looking them in the face. "Danny! Lindsay, help me please!" she cried as tears streamed down her face.

She wanted to know why they were just watching her, no one helping her as she sunk lower into the dark dank earth. She screamed as, with another loud _clunk_, more dirt was thrown down onto the glass above her.

"NO!" she screamed as more quickly followed. "Help me!" she screamed as the downpour of dirt continued. "MAC!" she screamed as loud as she could but it was no good, she could no longer see him through all the dirt.

All she could do now was cry. _How could this be happening to her? Why weren't her friends helping her?_ With an angry cry she hit out at the glass above her. _Mistake!_ A loud crack was followed by an even louder smash and as the glass caved in on her so did the dirt, pinning her body to the floor of her glass coffin, pressing down on her chest so she couldn't breathe, holding her arms down so she couldn't move….._shaking her body….?_

Suddenly Jo opened her eyes. There was no dirt in them, just tears, tears that at first blurred her vision, but the second she blinked them away she saw a familiar face looking back at her from just inches away.

Jo sat up right and threw her arms around Mac's neck. It shocked Mac how tight her grip was right now, but when he felt her shaking against him he knew it was fear giving her her moment of strength. He wrapped one around her waist and the other up her back, gently pacing his hand on the back of her head. He held her for a moment and just let her cry.

He had known the moment he saw her thrashing about in her bed and crying out that she was dreaming again and as gently as he could he had tried to wake her but he had had to grab the top of her arms and actually shake her to finally bring her out of her nightmare, and unlike the other times she had finally fully woke up.

After a moment Jo pulled out of the hug and looked at him, having to check once more he was actually there. Mac smiled at her and reached up and wiped away her tears. Seemingly knowing what she was thinking he said, "It's me, Jo."

Jo half laughed half sobbed at his words. Mac smiled but when he studied her he could still see she was badly shaking. He then noticed how she had begun to look around, trying to work out where she was. "Am I in hospital?" she asked.

"St Catherine's." he told her.

"I don't remember…. When did I get here?" she asked, her face showing her confusion.

"Jo, you've been here for three days. Since we found you." he told her.

"Where did you find me?" she asked him after a while.

"You were out in the Catskills. We got to you just in time."

Jo just nodded. She refused to let an image of the last thing she remembered into her head. She didn't need to remember her cell under the earth right now. She didn't need to remember the smells and the deafening sounds of the insects crawling through the ground. She didn't need to remember anything of what she had been through.

Realising it was best to just simply forget it all she looked back to Mac and asked. "Where's Tyler and Ellie?"

"They're with Russ. I'll go give them a call in a minute. I'm sure they'll all be thrilled to hear you're finally awake." he said with a small smile.

"How long have I been asleep?" she asked with a slightly nervous laugh.

"You've been out since you arrived here, Jo."

His words clearly shocked her but he watched as she seemed to quickly shake them off. Then rather casually she began to speak, a smile even spreading across her face. "How is everyone? It's seems like it's been a year since I saw the team. I can't wait to see the kids! I can only image the things they've been up to recently."

Mac couldn't help but feel a little puzzled. She was acting so natural, which was not how she was supposed to be acting right now. Mac knew she'd been through hell. He'd heard about _all _her injuries and more from the doctors and nurses. He sighed but smiled at her as he suddenly realised that she was far from out of the woods yet. If anything he knew she was still very much lost in them, now fighting her own battles.

**TBC**

**This chapter is kinda short but I only wanted it to contain Mac and Jo. **

**Hope you liked, please, please review and let me know what you think. **


	13. Chapter 13

**I'm really sorry this has taken so long to update. I'd like to say a huge thanks to anyone coming back to read it after such a long wait.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine if you've seen them on CSI: NY**

**Chapter 13**

_**Two months later**_

Ged was watching the woman from the fire escape as she walked around her unnecessarily neat apartment. This was clearly a woman who didn't have children and could afford the best of everything. All the furniture looked like it cost a fortune. The huge plasma TV fixed to the wall and the state of the range music system that sat in the corner of the room showed that the bitch had money to spend.

She may have been a bitch in his eyes but with her dark hair and her dark eyes….she looked just like her, _just like Jo._ He'd been thinking about her since he had read in the paper that she had been rescued. He wasn't sure if he hated her or Mac the most. He'd wanted her to die in that grave and he wanted Mac to be the one to find her cold rotting body.

As his anger swelled inside him he moved across the fire escape and over to the bedroom window and silently pulled it open. He'd practised this before tonight and he'd even practised creeping across her bedroom and out into the hall so he knew to step over the creaky floorboard just in front of the bedroom door.

As he silently made his way down the dimply lit hallway he could hear the bitch talking on the phone. She had such a sweet voice, _it was almost musical_. _God_, he couldn't wait to silence her for good. He got to the end of the hallway and could now see her sitting on the couch running her slim and delicate fingers through her hair. She had her back to him so had no idea he was watching her.

She was too busy chatting away into her brand new iPhone to hear him coming up behind her, but it would have been hard anyway because he moved so gently that he barely made any sound at all. He was close enough to pounce when he heard her say her goodbyes to whoever was on the other end of the phone. She leant forward and placed the phone down on the gleaming glass coffee table and picked up the latest issue of Vogue from off it. She sat back against the couch and pulled the magazine open and began flicking through it.

He struck too quick for her to be able to move away from him. She could only try to scream as his gloved hand came down over her mouth. His other arm was wrapped tight around her torso, crushing her. She tried to pull away from him but she was only petite and had no strength so couldn't stop herself from being pulled over the back of the couch by Ged.

He pulled her away from the couch and swung her hard into the wall beside them, letting her head hit it with a satisfying crunch. He let go of her and watched her crumple to the floor. He tipped his head back and stretched his arms out to the side and stood there as if he were looking up at the heavens feeling the full satisfaction of what he had just done…._what else he was about to do._

**~0~0~0~0~**

_**3 days later**_

Jo walked through the lab, clutching her iPad close to her chest. She was trying to find Hawkes but for the life of her she couldn't track him down. She saw Adam in his lab so decided to ask the young tech if he had seen Hawkes.

She walked in to find him with headphones on, his head swaying from side to side in beat with whatever he was listening to. He never heard her call his name so she stepped behind him and pulled out his headphones.

She couldn't help but smile as he near jumped half a mile out of his skin. "Sorry, Adam." she said instead of laughing at him.

"Jo! I never heard you." he said.

_Like she hadn't noticed._ "Relax, Adam. Did you get those reports back?" she asked.

"Sure did boss." Adam said as he pushed himself across his lab in his chair, too lazy to stand up.

Jo watched as he grabbed a file and then stood up and stepped over to her. He opened the file and began to explain the findings but she quickly snatched the file from him with a playful smile. "I can read, Adam." she said with a smile and then walked towards the door.

"_I know…_" he muttered, "Hey, err, Jo!" he called after her.

She stopped and turned to face him, "Yeah?" she said after he failed to continue to finish whatever it was he wanted to say.

"I….errr… How are you doing?" he asked a little nervously.

"I'm fine." she told him, forcing a smile.

"It's just, I'm here… you know if you need to talk."

"Adam, I'm fine!" she said a little snappily.

"Yeah, I know you are." he replied, not sounding like he was convinced. "I'm sorry." he said and quickly returned to his seat which he pushed back in front of his computer screen.

Jo wanted to apologise to him for snapping but the young tech had already put his headphones back in. Inwardly kicking herself she pushed away from the doorway of his lab and was moving across the hall when the elevator doors opened up.

A young woman, clearly a bike messenger stepped out. She saw Jo and called out to her, stopping Jo in her tracks. "Hey, lady, I got a package!"

Jo watched as the young woman walked over to her, reading the name off the package, "It's for a Jo Danville."

"That's me." Jo said, a little surprised as she wasn't actually expecting anything.

The woman smiled and thrust the package into Jo's hand. "Sign here please and then my work here is done!" she smiled before returning to chewing a wad of gum loudly.

Jo took a clipboard from her and signed her name as the woman glanced around the lab. She handed it back to the woman who smiled, popped her gum and then turned back towards the elevator, shouting back "Have a good day!"

Jo never replied and never bothered to watch her slip into the elevator she just turned on her heels and headed towards her office to find out what the package was. It was no bigger than an A4 size of paper and it wasn't very thick or heavy, but she could feel something sliding about inside it.

She stepped into her office and moved to sit behind her desk. She reached for her cup of tea and took a long swig. She quickly pulled a sickened face at the disgustingly cold cup of tea. She was going to have to get another one, she was running on fumes. She pushed herself up and figured she would just come back to the package later.

**~0~0~**

Jo, now with a hot fresh cup of tea in her hands, was walking back towards her office. She was stirring some sugar into her tea when she heard Mac calling her name. She stopped and turned to watch him walk up behind her.

"I've been looking for you everywhere!" he said to her.

She noticed how he stopped and stood observing her, _he did this a lot lately_. At first she knew it was because his eyes would lock onto the bruises and cuts on her face, now she felt it was just because he was looking for cracks in her of some kind. Why would no one believe her that she was fine? W_ell more or less fine._

"What's up, Mac?" she asked, desperate to get him to stop staring at her.

"Are you ready?" he asked her.

Her confusion must have shown on her face because he looked back at her in shock, "For what?" she had to ask.

"The team meeting, about the progress, or rather lack of, on the Midnight strangler." Mac reminded her. He was shocked she had forgotten about it, she never forgot things like that.

"Oh, _geez_! Mac, I totally forgot about that. Just give me a minute to get the lab report off my desk!" she said.

She all but ran towards her office and Mac followed after her. He stood in the doorway and watched as she bean rummaging around her desk for the report she had not long ago thrown down onto it, the one Adam had given her.

Mac noticed how her desk was more of a mess than usual. He watched as she put her cup of tea down and began going through more piles of papers and files.

"You really should let Lindsay sort that desk out for you sometime, I know she's offered in the past." Mac said.

"She used to offer to do it at least every day, Mac. _What can I say,_ I can't help it, it just always goes back to this!" she said as she balled her fists up and growled in frustration. "Oh where the hell is it?" she snapped.

Mac moved closer to her desk and began looking with her as she looked on the sideboard behind her desk. He noticed the package lying among the chaos that was her desk. "What's this?" he asked.

Jo quickly glanced at what he was looking at and then remembered the report was under that. She turned and stepped beside him and reached over to grab the report, as she did her arm knocked the pile of papers off the top of her computer. They all came crashing down and knocked her cup of tea over. Luckily it spilled off the table and not over everything on it.

"Shit!" Jo yelled, becoming more frustrated by the minute.

She grabbed the report and passed it to Mac. She then began looking for something to mop her spilled tea up with.

"Jo, come on, just leave it. I'll ask a tech to come in and clean it. We have to get to this meeting." Mac said.

Jo just looked at him and sighed. Mac was sure he could see tears staring to build up in her eyes, but she suddenly laughed and raked her fingers through her hair. "I think I should get a secretary." she said with a false smile.

Mac smiled back at her and nodded but he couldn't help but feel worried about her. She just wasn't herself. She hadn't been since the day she had woken up in the hospital.

"Come on then, we'll be late." Jo said as she noticed him staring at her again.

She stepped around him and stepped out of her office. Mac could only follow after her.

**~0~0~0~0~**

The meeting was about the team's latest case and a serial killer they had dubbed The Midnight Strangler, due to the fact all his victims times of death were put at midnight and all had died from strangulation. Another woman had been found dead in her home the day before and the team were still nowhere near solving the case. Despite the women being raped they had no DNA, no fibres of any kind, no prints, _pretty much they had nothing but a mounting pile of victims._

"The Killer always rapes and then strangles all his victims. He always uses white rope to tie his victims up and always uses a red scarf to strangle them." Danny said from the end of the table as he flicked through multiple pictures of the victims that were being displayed up on the screen they were all looking up at. The picture's all contained evidence of the white ropes and the red scarfs.

If Jo had been paying more attention, or even looking at the screen, the colours might have been of more importance to her but as it was she was still hanging on the last thing Danny had said 'the killer always rapes…'

She was thinking back to the first of these killings, one of the first cases she had worked on since coming back. She could see the bedroom of the first vic in her head clear as day. She could still remember the metallic smell of blood from where their killer had cut the woman with some sort of sharp instrument. Blood had been everywhere, all over the woman's bedroom. The killer had spread it on the walls like paint. It was obvious from the first glance at the naked woman's body that she had been brutally raped and it had been something that had caused Jo to have flashbacks of her own sexual assault, _something she had tried hard to forget about_.

She pulled herself out of her thoughts and spent the rest of the meeting forcing herself to pay attention.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Over an hour later Jo walked back into her office and had to smile upon seeing that a tech had in fact cleaned up her spilt tea for her. She was thankful because she really could not be bothered doing it now. She wanted to get home, open a bottle of wine, have a hot bubble bath and chill out on the couch. Ellie was staying over at her friends for the night so she could enjoy a nice peaceful apartment to herself.

She rummaged through the mess on her desk and grabbed a few things she would need. She then noticed the package, _she'd totally forgotten about it._ She grabbed it and stuffed it into her bag along with the other things she was taking home.

She looked up when Lindsay walked in, and she had to smile when she saw the young woman trying not to laugh. "Spill, Lindsay. What is it?" she asked.

Lindsay laughed and then looked at her and just smiled. "When…well when you were missing and your desk was cleared out it felt so odd. The mess drives me mad, don't get me wrong, but at least I know that you're here when there's a mess on your desk. When you were gone it was tidy, too tidy." she said and smiled as she remembered herself and Mac having made it seem more Jo-like.

Jo just looked at her with a small smile, wondering where she was going with this. Lindsay saw this so concluded, "I guess I like the mess."

Jo pulled her bag up onto her shoulder and switched her desk lamp off. "Thanks, Lindsay." she said as she walked past her, gently squeezing her shoulder. "G'night."

"Night, Jo." Lindsay replied before she turned to face Jo's desk again and the mess on it. She turned to her own desk and hesitantly reached down and ruffled up a neat pile of papers that stood there. She looked at the mess she had made for a second and then scooped them all together and sorted them into a neat pile again, "One messy desk in here is enough." she told herself.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Jo had a huge fluffy towel wrapped around her body and her fluffy bathrobe on over it. She pulled open the fridge and pulled out a bottle of red wine. She'd had her bath and now wanted a calming drink. She uncorked the bottle and pulled out a wine glass from the cupboard. She poured herself a large glass and took a long swig.

From behind the glass she noticed her bag sitting on the worktop and the package that was sticking out of it. She brought the glass away from her lips and stepped over to her bag. She pulled the package out and tucked it under her arm. She then scooped up her bottle of wine and carried it all through to the living room.

She took another long swig of wine and then put the glass and the bottle down on the coffee table. She sat down and studied the package. She suddenly noticed some scribbling in the corner of the envelope and it was only when she really focused on the tiny writing that she could make out what it said:

**_'Alabama'_**

Her hands began to shake as she thought about that word; _that name,_ the person who had dubbed her Alabama. With some difficulty - due to her shaking hands - she tore the envelope open and tipped it upside down. A small DVD case fell out onto the coffee table, the only thing it said on it was, _**'For Alabama, enjoy, Ged'.**_

She brought her hand up to her mouth, she was sure she was going to be sick. She took a deep breath and grabbed the DVD and stood up. She walked over to her TV and turned it on. It took her just a few seconds to load the DVD player and she stood there in silence watching the screen, waiting. Finally the screen burst to life.

She felt dizzy and sick as she watched it. It seemed to go on forever but finally it ended. She tried to get her breathing under control, hoping it would help her to stop feeling so dizzy, so nauseous. She noticed the envelope of on the coffee table and snatched it up. She reached in and pulled out a stack of A4 size pictures.

She began to quickly skim through them, but with each one she knew what would follow with the next. All of them were pictures of her and she clearly had no idea that any of them were begin taken at the time. She finally got to the bottom of the stack. This picture was a real close up of her and wrote over it in red permanent marker was _**"see you soon!"**_

Jo just about made it into the kitchen where she threw up into the sink, still clutching the picture and the warning note in her hand.

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading. Please review even if it's just to yell at me for taking so long to update. **


	14. Chapter 14

**So sorry about the delay, I've been promoted in work so all busy there. I'm also trying to start up a cake decorating thing so have been having to spend as much spare time as possible practising and making cakes. It's so hard to find the time to write so this chapter isn't very long but figured it was better than nothing. Hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

**Chapter 14**

Jo had called Mac the moment she had finished throwing up into her kitchen sink. She was now just pacing around her living room, nervously chewing on her fingernails as she waited for him to arrive. Her heart was pounding wildly and very loudly in her chest and it was beginning in to make her feel sick again.

The moment she heard a knock on the door she ran over to it, but just as she was about to open it up she froze. She knew it would probably only be Mac, but she suddenly couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't buzzed her to let him in downstairs. She couldn't open the door until she knew for sure it was him and with no peephole on the door the only way she could be sure was to ask.

However, before she had chance to she heard, "Jo, its Mac, your neighbour let me in."

She'd recognise his voice anywhere so she threw the door open and as Mac stepped into her apartment she threw her arms around him. It was like they were in charge of her body and they seemed adamant not to let go of him. She relaxed a little when she felt him wrap his arms around her. He guided her backwards a little so he could kick the door shut behind them.

When she still didn't let go of him he held her a little tighter. "Hey, it's okay, Jo. I'm here." With these words he felt her hug him a little tighter.

"The son-of-a-bitch is watching me, Mac!" she cried after a minute as she pulled away from him and walked over to the pictures.

She gathered them up and passed them to him. She saw his expression as he went through them all and she was sure she saw anger flash across his face. He got to the end of the pile and read the note on the final picture. He had to really force himself to look away from it. "What was the DVD?" he asked; his anger ready to boil over.

She had told him about there also being a DVD when she had called him to come over. She grabbed the remote off the coffee table and punched the play button with her thumb. Mac watched as the DVD began to play. He suddenly understood why Jo was so freaked out by the delivery.

"We need to show this to the others." Mac told her, "Straight away." He added.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Mac had called everyone on his way to the lab with Jo and the delivery. Danny and Lindsay were the first to arrive. They ran along the corridor and into the room that Jo and Mac were in. It was the same room that they had not long ago all been gathered in whilst going through images of their latest crime scenes.

Jo was sat on the large table when Lindsay ran over to her and wrapped her arms around her. "Are you okay?" she asked her, "That's a pretty stupid question isn't it?" she said, blushing a little.

"Thanks, Lindsay. I'm just a little shaken up is all. I thought that Ged was out our lives."

"He soon will be, Jo." Danny told her reassuringly.

_Jo could only hope he was right. _

**~0~0~**

Flack, Sheldon and Adam all arrived within ten minutes of each other. Sid had arrived before them so as soon as everyone was seated Mac began. "As you know from my phone calls, Jo received a package today. She opened the package once she got home and found these…" he said and passed the pictures – now all in separate evidence bags – around to everyone. "One of these pictures holds a threat, one we're not about to let come to."

"Not a chance!" Flack said as he held the very picture up for everyone to see. "This creep won't hurt you again, Jo." he said to her with a smile.

Jo smiled back at him, lord she had such great friends. "He also sent me a DVD." she told everyone as she grabbed the TV remote. "We finally know who our serial killer is." she said and then flicked the play button.

The others all turned to face the screen as the first short clip began to play. It was of a woman, tied with white rope, beaten and bloody. A hooded man was sat straddling her and in his hands, and wrapped around her neck, was a red scarf. They could only watch as the woman struggled for a moment before she became limp. Only then did the man climb off her, he turned to face the camera and smiled.

"Ged Cullen." Lindsay thought out loud.

The next short clip began to play, it too played out just the same way. The only difference this time was the room and the woman being killed in it. Again Ged smiled at the camera before the clip ended and moved onto the next one.

"He killed them all." Adam said.

"Yeah." Jo nodded, "And all because I didn't die."

She said as she stood up and left the room, glaring at the TV screen which she had paused at the final moment. On it Ged held up a piece of paper saying _**'It should have been you, Alabama!'**_

_It was Mac who got up to follow after her._

**~0~0~**

Jo was feeling completely nauseous again. She had come up to the roof hoping it would help the feeling pass. She was staring out over the city and the lights that winked and twinkled in the fading night sky. In a few hours the sun would be rising, a new day would begin and Jo would be plagued further by the thought that Ged was still out there after her.

The thought of him being out there somewhere made her skin want to crawl off of her body. She was suddenly reminded of the sickening feeling of him inside her and it made her need to walk, move and try to shake the feeling off, try to shake away any thoughts of him. She sighed heavily and came to a stop. Her mind had just gone blank when her phone began to vibrate in her pocket.

She reached into her pocket and pulled it out. She saw caller ID, _unknown._ She was hesitant but answered it anyway. "Jo Danville."

"God, it's good to hear your voice again, Alabama."

The moment she heard him she wanted to throw the phone as far away from her as she could, but she didn't. She breathed in and swallowed a huge gulp of night air before she replied. "Thanks for the delivery."

"You're welcome. Thought I would show you what you were missing out on." he replied.

"You killed all those women because I didn't die in that grave you left me in?"

"That would be about it, Alabama. It really pisses me off when things don't work out the way I planned them. After you, I had planned to retire, lead a more normal civil life but you fucking lived, and I figured my work wasn't yet done!"

"So what, you get to kill me and you won't kill anyone else ever again, is that what you're telling me?" she asked him.

"Again, that would be about it!" he snapped, from his tone she could tell he was pissed off.

"Liar!" she spat at him through gritted teeth.

"I'll do you one better then, I get to kill you and I'll hand myself in."

"You really think I believe you?" she scoffed.

"Bring your fuck buddy Mac along, he can be there waiting to arrest me. He can get to watch what I do to you this time."

"_Jo! Are you out here?"_ Mac yelled from across the roof, she knew Ged would have heard it.

"Talk to you soon, Alabama. Oh, and if you want this arrangement to work I suggest that you keep this conversation a secret for now." Ged said quickly before he hung up.

"There you are." Mac said from behind her.

Jo turned to face him and forced a smile when she saw the cup of tea in his hands. "I was just getting some fresh air." she told him as she stuffed her phone back into her pocket and then took the drink from him.

"Who are you calling at this time?" he asked with a curious smile.

Jo thought about telling him the truth but quickly changed her mind. "No one, I was just checking my messages."

_Jo could tell by the way he was looking at her that he didn't believe her. _

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading. Only a couple more chapters to go now until this story is over.**

**Please find the time to review and let me know what you thought of the chapter. **


	15. Chapter 15

**Thanks so much for all the reviews, I'm glad so many of you came back to continue reading after such a long time between updates. I wanted this chapter to be longer than this but it was taking too long so I figured I would just update what I had so far. Hope you like. **

**As usual parts in italics are flashbacks.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

**Chapter 15**

The night air was bitter, the kind in which you could see your breath in front of your face. However Jo drove along with her car window rolled right down. This had more to do with the fact she felt ready to throw up and didn't wish to do so all over her car. The fresh air pouring in through her window was the only thing stopping her from doing this.

She was getting closer to where she had to be, where she had to meet Ged. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then sighed as she remembered his most recent call…

_Jo was in her office and for once she felt the need to tidy her desk. It had quickly become a mess again since she had returned to work after everything that had happened. Usually she liked the mess but she was so nervous after Ged's call that the mess was making her more and more nervous to the point where she was just becoming stressed out. _

_Her version of tidying was more moving one pile of rubbish to another side of the desk and switching post-its round and such. However, her "tidying" suddenly came to an end when her cell phone began to ring. She grabbed hold of it and answered it. "Danville,"_

"_Alabama, has anyone told you how sexy you sound on the phone?" Ged asked. _

"_Where the hell do you want to meet?" she asked him. _

"_I gotta say, I thought you would back out. You got more balls than I thought, baby."_

"_Where the hell do you want to meet?" she asked enunciating every word clearly._

"_You really do like getting right down to the point don't you?" Ged snickered. _

"_Tell me now or I swear I will hang up."_

"_Easy, Alabama, remember that I'm the one calling the shots here. You hang up and you won't know where to show up. You don't show up and I kill another lovely lady."_

"_Fine then, where do I have to show up at?" she asked. _

"_First you have to do something for me."_

_Jo rolled her eyes and asked, "What's that?"_

"_Tell me something…"_

"_I could tell you a lot of things, I guarantee you won't like any of them." she spat at him. _

"_You really are feisty tonight. I like that Jo…I think we could have some fun if you're feeling feisty…"_

"_What do you want to know?!" she yelled, regretting it the moment two techs in the hall glanced up to see what the commotion was about. Jo just turned her back to them. "What do you want to know?" she asked, a little calmer this time._

"_Never mind, I'll just take a look for myself when I see you. You'll meet me at a familiar place, Jo, the warehouse where this all began."_

_That was the last place Jo wanted to go but what choice did she have. _

"_Oh and if you're not on your own and you don't do what I say then I will kill the bitch I got stashed. Her blood will be on your hands, Jo."_

"_I'll be alone." she told him._

As she pulled up outside the warehouse she felt her heart begin to pound even harder in her chest. She hated that it had all come down to this. She was being forced to meet Ged. She didn't want to but they had been her orders and if she didn't want him to hurt another woman she had no choice but to obey.

She sat there in her car, studying the building. The place looked like a death-trap. She knew it wasn't safe inside, for more reasons than the charred floor was likely to give way beneath her feet. She almost jumped a mile when she heard her phone begin to vibrate from where it lay on the passenger side seat

She reached across and read the text that it had just received, _**'You gonna wait out there all night, Alabama?'**_

Jo sighed as she realised she was being watched. She had no idea where Ged was but he could see her from wherever it was he was hiding. Taking another deep breath she switched off the engine and climbed out of the car, stuffing her phone into her pocket as she did so. She slammed the car door shut behind her and walked towards the warehouse.

All she could do was pray this wasn't all some huge stupid mistake. She could only hope she had thought it all out thoroughly enough.

**~0~0~**

As soon as she stepped inside the building the smell of charred wood, burnt rubber and burnt plastic hit her, all mixed together creating a foul smell that left a bitter taste in her mouth. She took a few careful steps forward and suddenly stopped when she heard a shuffle behind her. She turned to see what, or rather who, had made the noise. It was, as she knew it would be, Ged.

"Hi, Alabama, it's so nice to see you again." Ged said with a smirk.

"Wish I could say the same." she spat at him.

"Don't be like that. We had such good fun together last time." he said as he took some slow steps towards her.

"Yeah, it was the best fun I've ever had being buried alive and left to be worm food." she scoffed.

Ged just laughed and then said, "If possible, you're even more beautiful when you angry."

"How's this gonna work, Ged? I mean no offence but I don't want to spend the last ten minutes of my life having a conversation with you." she snapped impatiently.

"Sweetheart, you're gonna live for more than ten minutes and it's not a conversation I want to have with you." he said as he took another step towards her. He was now just a couple of feet away from her. One big lunge forward and he would easily be able to grab her.

Before he had chance to pounce on her she pulled her gun out and aimed it at him. However, she didn't expect him to do the same thing at the same time and she had to throw herself behind a burnt wooden crate to avoid being shot by him. She quickly ducked from behind it and fired at him. She watched him dive behind some other burnt wooden crates, then without wasting another minute pushed herself up onto her feet and ran.

She wouldn't get near the door because Ged was somewhere by it so she had no choice but to run further into the Warehouse. Besides, she only wanted to leave the warehouse knowing Ged was dead…._or she wanted to die knowing she had done everything she could to try and stop him._

She had to quickly duck down as another shot was fired and a bullet buried itself into the crate beside her. She sat there and listened to him walking around. She wished she could tell where he was but every sound echoed around the warehouse and it made it almost impossible to tell where he actually was.

"You're not playing by the rules, Jo! I told you I would kill that bitch if you didn't do what I said!" Ged shouted to her.

"Where is she then, Ged!" she shouted back before crawling across the floor, just in case he _could_ work out where she had just shouted back to him from.

"Oh, she's floating about here somewhere." Ged replied.

Jo thought his choice of words were odd, but she had to suddenly forget about them when she felt him reach over the crate and grab a handful of her hair. She pulled away from him, ripping a nice chunk of her hair out in the process. She went to fire her gun but the son-of-a-bitch was running from her.

She kicked the crate aside and ran after him, trying to keep her gun aimed at him, but it wasn't easy. Ged took off running up a steep flight of steps that looked anything but safe but Jo had no choice but to follow after him. Ged crossed the small landing and took off up the next flight of stairs. Jo tried to follow but he suddenly turned and fired at her.

She had to throw herself down to avoid being hit in the chest by the bullet. She cried out in pain however as the bullet skimmed her arm instead, taking with it a chunk of flesh. It hurt like hell and she knew it would bleed…_a lot,_ but it was in no way a fatal wound.

She pushed herself to her feet, grabbed her gun again and took off up the stairs, trying to work out which way Ged had gone. She couldn't help but wish he wasn't so fast. She came to another flight of steep stairs and took off up them. She hated the fact he was leading her higher and higher up. One more large flight of stairs and they would be out on the roof. Despite knowing it would have a fantastic view over the boat yard and the water it was the last thing she wanted.

She looked up as another shot rang out. This time a bullet skimmed past her face, missing her by inches. She quickly fired her own gun, missing Ged by inches as he ran from her again. She watched as he dashed across a walk-way that stood thirty feet above the warehouse floor. She ran up a small set of rickety wooden stairs and chased after him, her gun still aimed at him. She wanted to shoot but she couldn't risk wasting the bullets and she gave up on the idea entirely when he ran out of sight.

Still chasing after him she turned and ran along the same walk-way he had just dashed across. _However, she didn't realise just how unsafe it was until it was too late_. She screamed as she felt the floor literally drop from beneath her. Her shocked scream was mixed with that of pain as she felt the broken floorboards rip into her flesh as she fell down. It was only by gripping hold of the floor and hanging on for dear life that she didn't fall right through the hole she had made and to the ground thirty feet below.

She could feel her body slipping through the hole and quickly managed to grab hold of the rail at the side of her. She tried to pull herself up but it was hard and the pain in her right side made it all the more difficult. She wanted to glance down and see what damage the sharp wood that had cut into her flesh had done, but she daren't look down at the drop she was surely about to make if she couldn't pull herself up.

"Well, what have we here?" She heard Ged say.

She looked up and suddenly wanted to cry. She knew the bastard wasn't going to help her up. She was like some wild animal caught in a hunters trap and Ged was the hunter who had returned to claim his prey. She ignored him as he made his way carefully towards her, taking care where he stepped. She continued to try and pull herself up but could only yelp at the pain such movements caused her side.

"Jo, that's really not a safe place to hang around." Ged joked.

She scoffed and looked up at him and glared. She could only attempt to cling on to the railing with her one hand for dear life, her other hand struggled to keep grip on the dusty floorboard below it, her blood pooling from the bullet wound on her arm only made the attempt more difficult.

"Aw Jo, you know it didn't have to be like this. I had planned a nice romantic evening for us. By romantic I mean I was gonna tie to down to a crate in the back there and fuck you until you begged me to stop."

"Then shoot and kill me?"

"See, you were imaging the same thing. See Jo, you and I are just the same, we think so alike." he said as he knelt down right in front of her, making sure he was safely positioned so that he wouldn't go through the floor like she had.

"I'm nothing like you!" she spat at him.

She yelped in pain as he reached out and grabbed a handful of her hair, pulling her up out of the hole slightly but only so he could kiss her hard on the lips.

He pulled away and growled at her, "You're right, because you would have helped me outta this hole, but me, I'm gonna give you a helpful shove through it!"

Ged let go of his grip on her hair and let her fall back through the hole, the only thing stopping her from falling right through was her grip on the rail. She tried desperately to reach up and cling onto the floorboards with the tips of her fingers as well but her hand was covered in blood so the tips of her fingers kept slipping off.

Ged got to his feet and lifted his foot up. He aimed it right at her hand on the rail and was about to bring it slamming down on her hand when a shot rang out.

_**Bang!**_

**TBC**

**Sorry to leave it on a cliffhanger. Let me know if you want more. **

**Who could have fired a gun? Could it be Mac? **


	16. Chapter 16

**Last chapter here! Thanks so much to everyone for reading this story and a huge thank you to anyone who has left reviews or added alerts and things. Sorry this has taken so long to update but I've been on holiday and have had a hectic first week back at work, anyways here it is, hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine if you've seen them on CSI: NY**

**Chapter 16**

Jo could only hang on and watch as Ged scrambled to his feet and took off running. She clung on as hard as she could but she could feel her fingers slipping off the rail, she knew any second now she was going to fall to her death.

Her fingers were just about to slip right off when two strong hands reached into the hole and grabbed her. She was sure it was Ged, come back to finish her off but to her relief she looked up into the eyes of Mac. He hooked his arms under hers and pulled her up.

"Hold on, Jo!" he told her as he continued to pull her up. Jo helped him out as much as she could and soon Mac had pulled her up out of the hole and into his arms. He held her close for a moment and she allowed him to do so, unaware of how badly she was shaking.

"You're hurt." he said, unable not to notice the blood.

"It's nothing." she said, unwilling to let go of him yet, she stayed with her face buried against his neck.

"Which way did Ged go?" he asked her.

This snapped her out of her shocked state and she grabbed the rail and carefully pushed herself up, Mac did the same, the both of them careful not to stand on any parts of the wood that was badly fire damaged.

"He went that way." Jo told Mac.

"Jo stay here, I'll go after him."

"No, Mac, I wanna catch this prick!"

"You should never have come here alone in the first place." Mac snapped at her.

"How did you know I had?"

"I knew you were hiding something. I followed you. Good job I did. I've called for backup, they're on their way."

"No, Mac he has a woman here somewhere, I had to come alone or he would kill her. I can't have another woman's death on my hands."

Mac wasn't going to argue with her. He stepped passed her and took hold of her hand. They walked cautiously across the walkway and then on more solid ground broke out into a run after Ged. His footprints in the dust were a clear giveaway as to where he had gone…._the roof._

**~0~0~**

Jo and Mac ran out onto the roof. The night air was colder than Jo remembered. "Where'd he go?" Jo asked.

The second the words escaped her lips a shot rang out, the bullet skimmed past them and buried itself into the wall behind them. Mac grabbed Jo and pushed her down to safety, using his own body as a shield for hers as more shots rang out and more bullets bounced off the walls around them. They stopped suddenly but neither one of them made a move.

Mac studied Jo, "Are you okay?" he whispered to her.

She just nodded and checked he was okay. He had a small graze on his cheek from where a bullet had sent a small chunk of the wall hurtling into his face. It was nothing but a small cut that he hadn't even felt happen.

Mac looked around and could just about make out Ged running across the roof. He took out his gun and fired. They both heard Ged yelp in pain, _he'd been hit._ They both got up, and staying behind whatever cover they could, moved over to where Ged had been hit. He had got up and moved but not far. He was dragging his leg behind him like a piece of led. Upon knowing he was being followed he turned and fired the gun again.

Once more Mac found himself pushing Jo down behind cover as another downpour of bullets rang out over them. Jo landed hard behind a small wall and Mac behind another, just a few feet away from her. It was clear that Ged had come prepared with plenty of bullets. Mac was a little limited and Jo had lost her gun so they had to be more careful with their aim than Ged was being.

They both got up and moved into a crouch. They could clearly see one another but neither could make a move.

"Come on Mac, this doesn't have to end like this….I mean this isn't how I wanted this to end!" Ged called out, the pain he was in evident in his voice.

"And just how did you want this to end?" Mac asked.

"Oh…you know, along the lines of me fucking Jo again whilst you watched with a couple of bullets buried in your body. I'd finish you off with a bullet in the head once I was done with the stunning Alabama!"

Mac felt his anger boiling away in him. He wanted nothing more than to put another bullet in Ged's other leg.

"Did she tell you about the other times I fucked her, Mac? Did she tell you that secretly she loved it! It's a shame you're not a real man like me, you could give her that same pleasure. I know you want to!"

"I'm not a monster like you you-son-of-a-bitch!" Mac spat back at him, wishing he could look him in the eyes as he spoke, but it wasn't safe to move yet.

"Tell him, Alabama! Tell him what it's like to have a real man inside of you!" Ged yelled.

Mac glanced over at Jo and he could see the tears in her eyes, the disgust on her face. He wanted this to be over, he hated Ged for hurting her this way. "Shut up and drop the gun, Ged! Lie face-down on the floor and put your hands behind your head."

"Make me, better yet, let Jo do it!" Ged replied.

Jo could take no more, she stood up and shouted, "You fucking prick, you want me here I am!"

Ged lunged at her and Mac jumped to his feet and fired. The bullet slammed into Ged's chest before he could fire at Jo. They both watched as he fell to the floor, but he wasn't done. He aimed the gun at Jo again and squeezed the trigger. Mac beat him to it and another bullet slammed into his chest.

Jo ran over to Ged and kicked the gun away from him. She knew Mac had done what was needed but she wanted to see Ged rotting in prison, as did Mac. Jo placed her hands over the first bullet wound on Ged's chest and pressed down in an attempt to stop the bleeding. "You're not gonna die here you prick. You're gonna rot in jail…"

"Don't think so, Alabama…" he muttered as his mouth filled with his blood.

Jo looked up at Mac who was calling for backup to hurry up and to send an ambulance.

"Too bad you shot me….you'll never know where the woman is…by the time you find her, she'll be dead." he said as he struggled for breath.

"No!" Jo roared angrily at him and grabbed his shirt in her fists, "Where is she?" she yelled.

"Like I said, she floating about here somewhere…." He said before his eyes rolled back into his head.

"Son-of-bitch!" Jo cried as she got to her feet. "Mac, she's gonna die."

"No she won't we'll find her."

"How, Mac? He never told us where she is…."

"He said she's floating about here somewhere."

"Mac, that's it! She's on a boat!" Jo realised.

They both ran to the edge of the roof and looked down at the boats in the yard. They were looking for one that might catch their eye. They watched as the back-up cars suddenly pulled up below them and offices and the rest of the team poured out.

"We're looking for a female vic, she could still be alive. We think she's in a boat but she might not be. Spread out and keep your eyes open!" Mac yelled down to them.

Everyone did as he said and taking her hand Mac led Jo back down from the roof so they too could join in the search.

**~0~0~**

Back down on the ground Jo and Mac ran into Danny and Lindsay, who both noticed they were injured. "You two okay?" Danny asked.

"We're fine!" Jo said, "We need to find this woman, keep looking!" she said before she took off running, dragging Mac behind her.

They had been searching for about ten minutes when Jo noticed a small boat sitting in a quiet area all on its own. Mac was about to run past but she stopped him by grabbing hold of his arm. "Look,"

Mac looked at the boat she was pointing to and read the name, _"The Sweat Alabama…"_

"Mac, that's where she is!" Jo said knowingly.

"Over here!" Mac yelled to the others and then ran after Jo who was already climbing on board the boat. The woman was in fact there, lay on the deck, her body naked, beaten and bloodied. Jo checked for a pulse. "She's alive!" she cried.

"Get a medic over here!" Mac yelled to the others.

Jo wasted no time in pulling off her coat and draping it over the woman. Mac quickly pulled his own coat off and put it over the woman for extra warmth.

"You're gonna be okay sweetheart, My names Jo, I'm a Detective." Jo said as she gently laid her hand on top of the woman's head. "That's prick can't hurt you anymore."

Mac could only watch Jo and think the same thing. He released a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding the whole time since Ged had been alive and gunning for Jo. He decided there and then he had to tell her how he truly felt.

**~0~0~0~0~**

_**One week later.**_

Jo had just sat down on the couch when there was a knock on the door. Despite only being wrapped in a towel and dressed in a bath robe she walked over to the door and answered, after all she knew who it would be.

She opened the door with a smile already on her face. Mac stood there holding a bottle of wine and wearing a smile as big as hers. "Can I come in?" he asked.

"Certainly." Jo said as she stepped aside.

Mac noticed the candles that were spread around the room, all of them lit, creating a soft glow of light. He also noticed the soft music quietly playing in the background. "Home alone?" he asked.

"Yep," Jo replied.

"Expecting someone?" he asked as she took the bottle from him.

"A very handsome man, a Detective whom I adore!" she joked as she walked into the kitchen.

Mac just followed after her. "What's his name, I'm jealous." he joked. He knew it was him she was expecting.

Ever since the night at the boat yard he had confessed how he felt about her. He couldn't risk her never knowing, to his delight she had confessed to feeling the same about him. That had been the first night they had made love and he had never felt closer to anyone in his life. He loved to just be able to hold her in his arms and know she was safe there. _Theirs was a relationship based on love and friendship._

"I think it sounds something like Jack, or Zack…."she said playfully.

"Could it be Mac?" he asked.

"I don't think I'd date someone called Mac." she joked as she turned to face him and leant against the cupboard behind her.

Mac walked up to her and said, "Maybe I could change your mind."

He reached up and gently brushed her cheek with his knuckles. He then moved to cup her face and moved in so his lips gently touched her. He kissed her softly but passionately enough to make her moan into his mouth. A moment later he pulled away and lovingly tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear.

"You just changed my mind." she said with a playful smile before she moved to kiss him back.

As the kiss deepened Mac wrapped his arms around Jo and pulled her into him. Jo reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, she tangled her hands into his hair and felt herself becoming completely lost in the kiss, the way she always did when they kissed.

She pulled away and asked, "Shall we drink this wine in bed?"

"Sounds good to me." Mac said.

Jo smiled and grabbed the bottle. Mac grabbed hold of the glasses and took hold of Jo's other hand. He let her lead him to her bedroom. They sat together in bed for a while, wrapped in one and others arms and drank the fine wine, then they made love and their relationship only grew stronger from there.

**The End**

**Again, thanks so much to everyone for reading. Hope you liked. Please leave one last review. **


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